Under the title, " Freedom of Press does not give licence to a newspaper to malign a political leader or mar his future political prospects by publishing fake and defamatory writings,"
amar kantak <kanta...@yahoo.com> wrote: "The fundamental objective of journalism is to serve the people with news, views, comments and information on matters of public interest in a fair, accurate, unbiased, sober and decent manner. To this end, the Press is expected to conduct itself in keeping with certain norms of professionalism, universally recognised. The norms enunciated below and other specific guidelines appended thereafter, when applied with due discernment and adaptation to the varying circumstance of each case, will help the journalist to self-regulate his or her conduct. etc etc" COMMENT: Dear Mr. Kantak, You are very right. ALL of us (and that includes the 3 Ps i.e. Press, Politicians and Public) have to exercise due care that we do not either Slander or Libel another. BTW: Slander or Libel are not loose words. They have specific meanings. So does the word "malign". Let us remember that while a free press is a pillar of democracy (just like freedom of speech for the public) there is a fine line between freedom and excessive license. Democracies around the world, allow a certain amount of latitude to the Politicians and Press. Comedians (cartoonists) get an extra latitude. Whatever our tolerance, it has got to be the same whether the criticism (say) is about Mr. Parrikar or (to use an example) Mrs. Gandhi. Somehow, we appear not to be as equitable as we should be ... when "our" chaps are sticking it to the other chaps. In the INDEX case, IF what was reported is accurate, I would recommend that the GUJ president please resign. jc
