NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday said that confessional statements of an accused which are not in the public domain cannot be accessed and published.
The court questioned a news channel over the broadcast of an alleged confession of an accused in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi in February.
It also said that journalists do not have the right to take out the case diary and publish it.
The high court directed media house, Zee News Media Corporation Ltd, to file an affidavit disclosing the name of the source from whom the concerned journalist got the documents of an alleged confession statement of the Jamia Millia Islamia student.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru declined the request of the media house that it should be allowed to disclose the name of the concerned journalist in a sealed cover as revealing his name openly would risk his life and his family. The judge listed the matter for further hearing on October 23.
The high court was hearing a plea by JMI student Asif Iqbal Tanha alleging misconduct by police officials in leaking his disclosure statement, recorded by the probe agency during the investigation, to the media.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, representing Zee News, argued that pressing for disclosure of source would amount to interfering with the freedom of the press and in a situation where the source of information is not protected or safeguarded, the freedom of press will be severely jeopardised or interfered with.
The high court, however, said it does not think that it’s a journalist’s right to take out the case diary and publish it and that the news report cannot be based on documents that are not in the public domain.
With PTI inputs