Defamation is best left to the civil courts to decide, on the award of damages, rather than dragging someone who is supposed to have made a defamatory speech to a criminal court and subjecting him to the coercive process of the criminal justice system, said N. Ravi, publisher and former editor-in-chief, The Hindu, on Friday.
He was delivering the 16th Late S. Parthasarathy I.P (retd) Memorial Trust Endowment Lecture on ‘Media freedom in defence of Human Rights - The law relating to defamation,’ organised by the Department of Criminology, University of Madras and the trust, in Chennai. V. Vaikunth, former DGP and secretary of the trust, was also present.
Mr. Ravi’s speech focused on the interconnection between freedom of expression, media freedom, human rights and on the law of defamation. “The attempt to find a solution to the problem of criminal defamation through the courts has failed. Indeed, in trying to balance the right to freedom of expression and the right to reputation, the criminal law and the court seem to have tilted in favour of right to reputation,” said Mr. Ravi.
‘Need for balance’
He said that the balance needs to tilt a little bit in favour of free expression and away from protecting reputation through use of criminal sanctions and hoped the day is not too far off.
“There is faint hope that Parliament would move to join many of the other liberal democracies and remove criminal defamation from the statute books,” he added.
Welcome move
Later, answering questions on the ‘#MeToo’ campaign from the audience, he said that it is a welcome move.
He said it takes a great deal of courage for someone who has been subject to such abuse, to come out and name a person despite the dangers of being looked down upon by society and risking career prospects.
However, he felt that in India the issue stops with revelation in media and social media and there is no follow-up.
“In the US, such issues are followed up immediately by prosecution,” he said.
