The Delhi High Court on Monday asked news channels as to what needs to be done to improve the current standards of news reportage, while remarking that people are “scared of the Fourth Estate and that Doordarshan era was much better”, adding that  “Black-and-white Doordarshan era was much better.”

Justice Rajiv Shakdhar said - People are scared about the Fourth Estate. Even if the issue regarding the privacy of public figures is diluted, the news channels platform cannot drag their personal lives into the public domain.  The court also questioned the news channels about the system to change the way news reporting is taking place nowadays. “Even trained and educated minds get affected by such consistently misreporting. You tell us how we should resolve this?” the court asked.

The remarks were made while the court was hearing a petition filed by four Bollywood associations and 34 producers to seek restraint on Republic TV and Times Now channels from making or publishing what they dubbed as “irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory” remarks against Hindi film industry and its members. The bench stated that it’s not disallowing the news channels from covering news but is only asking them to pursue responsible journalism. The court also warned the channels that if they don’t follow the Programme Code, it will have to ‘enforce’ it.

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