The Supreme Court asked  for a “regulatory mechanism” for tv channels and said government is silent on the action taken against TV channels in a case linked to media reporting on the Tablighi Jamaat .

“The government is silent on the action that has been taken and the power it has to regulate the TV channels. If there is no regulatory mechanism, create one or else we will hand it over to outside agency. Regulation cannot be left to the NBSA (News Broadcasters Standards Authority)” Chief Justice SA Bobde said . He pointed that the top court is not satisfied with the centre’s affidavit which was shared in the top court . the top court berated the government for having a junior officer file what it called an “extremely offensive and brazen” response.

“First, you did not file a proper affidavit and then you filed an affidavit which did not deal with the two important questions. This way it cannot be done Mr Mehta… we are not satisfied with your reply. We asked you to tell about what action taken has been taken. But not a whisper in your affidavit,” the bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, underlining that the government did not deal with the Cable TV Network Act in its response as it highlighted that “applicability of the Act in controlling media has a great consequence in this country”.

“Tell us what’s the present legal regime you have… you haven’t told anything,” the top court said. The Solicitor General told the court that a fresh affidavit will be filed.

The centre has defended the media in this case and said in its response to the Supreme Court that there was “no instance of bad reporting”.

The Supreme Court last month pulled up the centre on its affidavit and said it “must tell us instances of bad reporting” and what action had been taken. “Freedom of speech is one of the most abused freedoms in recent times,” Chief Justice SA Bobde had said during the hearing last month

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The home ministry issued a statement denying NGO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL allegation that govt not allowing them  to work smoothly .

In a statement home ministry said  The stand taken and the statements made by Amnesty International are unfortunate, exaggerated and far from the truth.

The facts of the matter are as follows:

Amnesty International had received permission under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) only once and that too twenty years ago (19.12.2000). Since then Amnesty International, despite its repeated applications, has been denied FCRA approval by successive governments since as per law it is not eligible to get such an approval.

However, in order to circumvent the FCRA regulations, Amnesty UK remitted large amounts of money to four entities registered in India, by classifying it as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). A significant amount of foreign money was also remitted to Amnesty (India) without MHA’s approval under FCRA. This mala fide rerouting of money was in contravention of extant legal provisions.

Owing to these illegal practices of Amnesty, the previous government had also rejected the repeated applications of Amnesty to receive funds from overseas. This had led Amnesty to suspend its India operations once during that period as well. This bipartisan and purely legal approach towards Amnesty, under different governments, makes it clear that the entire fault lies in the dubious processes adopted by Amnesty to secure funds for its operations.

All the glossy statements about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power are nothing but a ploy to divert attention from their activities which were in clear contravention of laid down Indian laws. Such statements are also an attempt to extraneously influence the course of investigations by multiple agencies into the irregularities and illegalities carried out over the last few years.

Amnesty is free to continue humanitarian work in India, as is being done by many other organizations. However, India, by settled law, does not allow interference in domestic political debates by entities funded by foreign donations. This law applies equally to all and it shall apply to Amnesty International as well.

India has a rich and pluralistic democratic culture with a free press, independent judiciary and tradition of vibrant domestic debate. The people of India have placed unprecedented trust in the current government. Amnesty’s failure to comply with local regulations does not entitle them to make comments on the democratic and plural character of India.

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