Can journalists be arrested over a headline? The Calcutta High Court has, for now, said the police must hold off. Hearing a plea by Anandabazar Patrika journalists facing FIRs over a headline used while reporting campus violence at Jadavpur University, the Court directed that no coercive steps be taken against them until December 15, with the State assuring cooperation-based restraint. The allegations against them are yet to be tested.
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has directed the police authorities not to take any coercive steps against journalists of the Bengali newspaper Anandabazar Patrika, in connection with FIRs arising from a headline used by the newspaper while reporting on violence at Jadavpur University, until December 15 [Ishani Datta Ray v. State of West Bengal].
Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya passed the direction while hearing a plea by the journalists seeking protection from arrest in connection with the criminal proceedings.
The background
The FIRs arose from the newspaper’s use of a headline while reporting on violence at Jadavpur University, said to have involved students affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Federation of Engineering and Technical Students’ Unions (FETSU). The headline had also drawn objection from the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari. The FIRs, according to the submissions, accuse the journalists of attempting to incite communal feeling through the headline.
Appearing for the journalists, Senior Advocate S.N. Mookherjee had earlier sought urgent intervention, referring to “three incidents” and submitting that “two senior ladies have been hauled up”. The plea was initially not granted a special listing before the Chief Justice’s Bench; the Court observed that several quashing matters were already pending and directed that the matter be filed in the regular course, leaving it open to counsel to mention it subsequently.
The Court’s direction
At a subsequent hearing, the State, represented by Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar, assured the Court that no coercive steps would be taken against the journalists, subject to their cooperation with the notices issued by the investigating authorities. Recording that position, Justice Bhattacharyya directed that no coercive steps be taken against the journalists until December 15.
The petitioners have challenged the criminal proceedings, raising concerns over the action taken against the journalists in connection with the headline used while reporting on the university violence. Senior Advocates S.N. Mookherjee and Sandipan Ganguly, assisted by Advocates Arunabha Deb and Ashika Daga, appeared for the journalists. The matter is next listed on December 1.
Why it matters
The order is an interim, protective one, and it turns on a familiar tension between two interests: the freedom of the press to report and to choose how it frames its reporting, and the State’s power to investigate a complaint that a publication has crossed into an offence. Courts have generally been cautious about the arrest of journalists for what they publish, treating the coercive process of arrest as a serious step not to be taken routinely where the dispute is, at its core, about the content of reportage; at the same time, the protection here is expressly conditional on the journalists cooperating with the investigation, which continues.
What the Court has not done is decide whether the headline, or the FIRs founded on it, disclose any offence. The petitioners’ challenge to the criminal proceedings, including their concern that reporting has been met with criminal action, remains to be heard; the State’s case that the matter warrants investigation likewise remains open. The direction restrains arrest for now, without adjudicating the legality of the FIRs or the merits of the allegation that the headline was intended to incite.
Nothing has been finally decided, and the allegations against the journalists are untested; they are entitled to the presumption of innocence. The interim protection holds until December 15, the investigation proceeds subject to the journalists’ cooperation, and the High Court will take up the challenge to the proceedings when the matter is next listed. This report expresses no view on the headline, the FIRs, or the underlying events at the university.
Case Title: Ishani Datta Ray v. State of West Bengal
Bench: Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya, High Court at Calcutta
Appearances: Senior Advocates S.N. Mookherjee and Sandipan Ganguly, with Advocates Arunabha Deb and Ashika Daga, for the journalists; Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar for the State.
Status: Police directed to take no coercive steps against the journalists until December 15, subject to their cooperation with the investigation. Challenge to the criminal proceedings pending; allegations untested. Listed December 1.