Assembly Speaker writes to CJ of Kerala HC over media-lawyers tussle

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan Thursday sought the intervention of High Court Chief Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar to ensure freedom for mediapersons to report court proceedings in the state.

Sreeramakrishnan in a letter to Chief Justice said he expected a constructive intervention from him to create circumstances that would allow media to report court matters.

However, he said journalists also should show the natural propriety while reporting court news.

Conditions should be created in courts where the journalists can report freely and without fear, he said.

"If media did not report, it was the right of the people to know is being denied. This cannot happen," he said.

A group of lawyers, angered over a media report about a government pleader allegedly misbehaving with a woman, had chased some mediapersons away and media have not been able to go to the High Court to report proceedings since July 19.

Some journalists were dragged out of the Vigilance court in Thiruvananthapuram on October 14 by the lawyers when they had gone there to report the proceedings regarding the petition against the then Industries Minister E P Jayarajan on controversial appointments of his relatives in key posts in state public sector undertakings.

Though Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had recently said there was no bar on journalists to report court proceedings and called the action of a section of lawyers obstructing reporting unacceptable, mediapersons were not allowed in courts in the state.