Sevanti Ninan
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Published 21.12.20, 12:37 AM
We had begun to believe that the Bharatiya Janata Party is striding ahead with its steady demolition of secularism and free speech because the courts are not resisting its agenda. But a closer look at what happened in the courts this year offers cause for cheer.
This has been a significant year for media practitioners and citizens in the courts. While the cases involving the Republic TV anchor, Arnab Goswami, grabbed the headlines, there were pushbacks in the Supreme Court against hate speech, with television anchors peddling such speech being refused relief. The courts also made observations decrying the addition of sections pertaining to sedition in first information reports. In Goswami’s case, none other than the frequently maligned Chief Justice of India observed that what his channel puts out is “not the kind of public discourse we should have.”