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Round one to media in Geo case as full Bench beats a retreat

ISLAMABAD: It was round one to the journalists on Monday in Supreme Court vs. Geo Television, with a full Bench beating a retreat on an order restraining the media from writing or broadcasting anything about the judiciary without prior permission from the court.

Going even by the Pakistan Supreme Court’s chequered history, the first hearing of suo motu contempt of court proceedings against Geo television and Jang and The News dailies, all from the same media stable was most extraordinary.

Journalists from both television and print packed the court room in the morning and openly heckled and booed the Bench while the main respondent, the Islamabad bureau chief of Geo, openly challenged the presiding judge of the Bench.

At one point, the judge, Nawaz Abbasi, looking completely troubled, tried to leave the courtroom, but was persuaded to come back amid more jeers and whistling.

Geo had been summoned to court in the morning for a report on the channel that the Interior Secretary had held a meeting last week with the Supreme Court Chief Justice and two other judges of the court to convey a message from “a very important personage.”

Issuing the summons last Friday, the court also restrained all journalists from publishing or broadcasting anything about the judiciary without prior permission from the court’s registrar or public relations officer

When Absar Alam, Islamabad bureau chief, asked the court for four-week time to respond to the notice, the Bench, led by Mr. Abbasi refused, saying it was too much time.

The Bench also ordered the Information Ministry and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority to provide to the court every programme the channel had produced on the judiciary since November 3, 2007, the day President Musharraf imposed the Emergency.

Following this, it was open season in the courtroom. An office-bearer of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists stood up asking the judges to take back their restraint order as it amounted to gagging the entire media for something that Geo had done.

From the packed courtroom, insults were hurled at the Bench. Someone shouted that journalists were not the same as “PCO judges” (the judges who took oath under President Musharraf’s provisional constitutional order) to surrender their rights in this manner.

Mr. Alam argued that while the Bench could send him to prison if it thought he had committed an offence, it could not snatch away the freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution and the judges could not take it away from him and other journalists.

To much applause from the journalists in the court, Mr. Alam challenged Mr. Abbasi’s presence on the Bench, arguing that as the judge was one of those mentioned in the Geo report, he was an aggrieved party and must not sit in judgment on it.

He further challenged Mr. Abbasi by declaring that he would quit his job if he could not provide irrefutable proof of the report, and asked if the judge was prepared to do the same if the proof was provided.

Outraged, Mr. Abbasi tried to leave the court at this point, but was persuaded to stay on. But the courtroom was still in turmoil, and sensing the unrest, the Attorney-General and two senior lawyers appointed by the court for assistance moved in to calm the waters.

Attorney-General Malik Qayyum, Sharifuddin Pirzada, a legal adviser to retired General Musharraf, and Hafiz Pirzada, a senior constitutional lawyer, advised the Bench to change the order.

Acting on the advice, the judges modified the order considerably to restrain the media from passing derogatory remarks against the judiciary.

But Geo still has to provide all its programmes containing any reference to the judiciary produced in the last six months to the court. The case has been adjourned to May 22. “The battle is on,” Mr. Alam told The Hindu.

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