The Karnataka High Court issued notices on Wednesday to 70 media platforms, as well as the central and state government, directing them to strictly follow the programme code as laid out in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act. The direction was issued while the court was hearing a petition filed by Arma V Hiremath, a lawyer and BJP member, the Hindu reported.
The high court's move came after Karnataka minister Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned on March 3 after TV channels aired images and video clips of a "sex CD" that allegedly featured him and an unidentified young woman. Jarkiholi, who was the minister for major and medium irrigation, allegedly sexually harassed the woman in return for a government job.
Hiremath had sought direction to safeguard the right to privacy of individuals and to ensure that media outlets don't invade the privacy of individuals by breaching the law. The Hindu reported that Hiremath "cited media reports about claims made by social activist Dinesh Kallahalli that he had many CDs containing explicit contents of other persons belonging to the BJP'."
LiveLaw reported that Hiremath claimed that he was espousing his private right as he “apprehends that the respondent-media platforms may get in hold of explicit material of the petitioner by unknown sources, broadcast or publish the same in their platforms thereby infringe upon his right to privacy that is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution.”
The court said, “By an ad-interim direction, it is directed that any broadcast in the Cable Television Network shall be strictly in conformity in terms of the programme code as defined under Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, read with Rule 6 of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994.”
The 70 media platforms include TV channels, news websites, news agencies, and social networking and micro-blogging sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Hiremath also sought directions against the police commissioner to take action against media platforms who violated the programme code. On March 9, the Bengaluru police commissioner had issued an order saying that media houses that violated the code would be liable for prosecution, LiveLaw reported.
