Hon'ble Supreme Court's judgement on Ajmal Kasab : Role of Media : [2012] : Excerpts [1/8]

"From the transcripts it is evident that the terrorists who were entrenched at those places and more than them, their collaborators across the border were watching the full show on TV"

At yet another place the terrorists at Hotel Taj tell the collaborators that they had thrown a grenade. The Collaborators reply, “the sound of the grenade has come, they have shown the grenade, the explosion has taken place, people are wounded”*

[* As it was shown on live TV]

"At yet another place the collaborators tell the terrorists at Hotel Oberoi that the troops were making their position very strong on the roof of the building."

"There are countless such instances to show that the collaborators were watching practically every movement of the security forces that were trying to tackle the terrorists under relentless gun fire and throwing of grenades from their end."

The reckless coverage of the terrorist attack by the channels thus gave rise to a situation :

- terrorists were completely hidden from the security forces and they had no means to know their exact position or even the kind of firearms and explosives they possessed.

- on the other hand the positions of the security forces, their weapons and all their operational movements were being watched by the collaborators across the border on TV screens and being communicated to the terrorists.

"It is in such extreme cases that the credibility of an institution is tested.

The coverage of the Mumbai terror attack by the mainstream electronic media has done much harm to the argument that any regulatory mechanism for the media must only come from within."

Original Doc : https://indiankanoon.org/doc/193792759/