Kanika Goel, Advocate enrolled with Bar council of Delhi & Student, LLM (ADR), Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies (Affiliated to GGSIPU)
ABSTRACT
There have been numerous cases which reflects the fact that media has a great influence upon the public’s opinion and has started interfering in the judicial processes. The purpose of this article is to identify the extent of the influence which media trials exert upon public in formation of their opinions and the consequence of the interference witnessed with the court proceedings. Media trials have been encroaching upon the criminal justice system of India heading towards the dire assassination of an accused’s character even before his conviction. Subsequently, various case laws have been referred to justify the fact as to how the media trials have successfully troubled the fair and independent court proceedings and harmed the criminal justice system of the nation. The article specifically mentions how media from being the fourth pillar of the democracy is turning into a self-claimed entity to facilitate justice. Also, a comparison is made between the essence of a fair trial to that of a media trial and how the credibility of media is diminishing with each passing day. With the conclusion of the article, few regulatory measures have been stated to restrict and regulate the functioning of media houses as they interfere with the fair functioning of the judiciary.
Keywords: influence, assassination, self-claimed entity, credibility
