A day after the Patna High Court directed that the media should not publish any information related to the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, journalists, politicians and members of civil society on Friday protested it saying “it’s an exercise to gag the media”.
The Patna High Court is monitoring the Muzaffarpur State-run shelter home sexual abuse case of 34 minor girls that was exposed in a social audit report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) submitted to the government this March.
“Under the circumstances, till the investigation is completed, all the print and electronic media are hereby restrained from reporting anything with respect to the case, more particularly, with respect to the investigation already undertaken and/or which is likely to take place as it may seriously hamper the investigation of the case. The State government and the CBI is directed to see that the above order is complied with everybody”, said the division bench of the Patna High Court comprising chief justice Mukesh R. Shah and justice Ravi Ranjan in a three-page oral order.
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The court had also pulled up the investigating agency CBI for not submitting the status report and the sudden transfer of CBI SP, J.P. Mishra. The court further asked the CBI to explain the progress report in a “sealed cover” on August 27, the next date of hearing.
“How can the media be prohibited from reporting any information in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case? It smacks as a gag order and reflects the Emergency era. If media did not report this case, the honorable Supreme Court would have not taken cognizance of the case”, senior Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Shivanand Tiwari told The Hindu .
Noted academician Nawal Kishore Choudhury said that the “Patna High Court should reconsider its order of the blanket ban on the freedom of speech and expression which is essential in any democratic set-up.
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“I think what the Supreme Court had said on the issue that identity of the victims should not be revealed must be maintained but how can the media be refrained from publishing any report on it? It is only because of the media that this Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case has come to light”, Mr. Choudhury told The Hindu .
Similarly, former director of Patna-based A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Sciences and social thinker D.M. Diwakar said, “The Patna High Court should revoke its order…media has been only in the role of a facilitator.”
Senior journalist K.K. Singh said that the “court order is highly condemnable and it should not have happened. It is only because of the media this sexual exploitation of minor girls at Muzaffarpur shelter home funded by the State government has come to light and even the Supreme Court had taken notice of it because the media published reports on it”.
Former editor of Hindi daily Hindustan Sukant Nagarjun told The Hindu that “it’s an effort to censor the media, and it’s a black day for the freedom of speech, a direction towards Emergency days has been given”, he said before adding, “if the media would not have reported it, the infamous fodder scam would not have come out”.
Political observer and editor of Bihar Times.Com Ajay Kumar too expressed his shock. “It reminds us of the Emergency days when the media was gagged. How can the media be asked not to the public any report regarding Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case? It’s in the public interest that the media reports what is happening in the case”.