“Let there be no media trial before an actual trial takes place,” the Calcutta High Court appealed to the media here on Wednesday while delivering an order on the public interest litigations demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Saradha Group scam.
“Of late, particularly after the introduction of the electronic media, less experienced people [journalists] are in the fray. They jump up to the cause in undue haste and often commit mistakes in the process,” a Division Bench of Justices A.K. Banerjee and M.K. Chaudhuri said.
The court urged the media to consider “what will pass through the mind of a young Magistrate who is in his or her second or third year of career and facing the onslaught”.
“There would be every chance of committing a mistake,” it observed.
The court, however, said that it did not wish to undermine the role of the media or hurt anyone’s sentiment.
“We only make a humble endeavour with all humility to bring it to the notice of the prudent journalists and the persons connected with the media, the follies that we notice,” the court said.
The Saradha scam that has affected lakhs of investors in the State has been widely reported in the media since April, 2013 after the financial irregularities of the company came to the fore.
