Bengaluru: Former chief justice of Supreme Court Justice H.L. Dattu affirmed that media trials and high decibel TV debates should be avoided.

While inaugurating a workshop on ‘Role of Media in Promotion and Protection of Human Rights’ at National Law School of India University (NLSIU) on Thursday, he said, “News anchors taking the role of judge, jury, and prosecutor all-in-one is not a pleasant sight.”

Referring to the reportage on the developments at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, he said, “A trial by media is the very anti-thesis of the law, which leads to gross miscarriage of justice.” He opined that media has no right to manipulate the general public’s mind towards a particular conclusion.

The former judge pointed out that the trend of sensationalizing news is something that should be eradicated.

“Provocative journalism and promoting a culture of vengeance should be cleared to promote and protect human rights,” he said. Justice Dattu also suggested that “journalists should be trained to be aware of human rights, laws of defamation, and contempt so as to have a positive approach towards upholding human rights in the country.”

In his address Dr R. Venkata Rao, Vice Chancellor, NLSIU asserted that it is high time media persons have a cover for bringing out disturbing truths. “Even though we have freedom of expression in India, do we have a provision for freedom after speech?” he questioned.

“Journalists work as human rights defenders, as their reports lead to effective protection and

promotion of human rights issues,” said Dr Ranjit Singh, Joint Secretary, National Human Rights Commision (NHRC).

The workshop was jointly organised by NLSIU and NHRC and NLSIU on Thursday.

Students from various law and media institutes round Bengaluru city attended the workshop along with representatives from various media organisations.