Impact Of Media Trials On Public Perception And Judicial Integrity
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 27, 2025
- 2 min read
Priyanshi Srivastava, B.B.A. LL.B. (H), Department of Law, School of Legal Studies, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, U.P., India
ABSTRACT
Media trials are one of the most impactful and controversial phenomena in contemporary journalism. While the media is an equally important system in a democracy, as it is responsible for accountability and public interest, its effect on the judicial system is disturbing. In some cases, media reporting had enabled justice to be done by keeping cases alive, publicly turning their focus on the authorities. Nevertheless, when media coverage degenerates into a ‘trial by media,’ the results can be dire. Twisted reasoning, shifting of blame, and downright fabrications can cause enormous damage to people, witnesses, courts, and public perception. The deliberate framing of stories using nonsensical or imaginative hyperbole along with egregious omission and fabrication of relevant events can misguide the society, manipulate the people who will testify, and even complicate judicial members, thus undermining justice.
The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of highly sensationalized media reporting on the perception of the masses, the boundaries of the law, and the public domain. It attempts to show how media constructions of reality determine public opinion about judicial proceedings, and how this goes on to impact the objectivity of investigations and prosecutions that follow in court. Furthermore, it elaborates the scope of constraints that in principle exist in India against media blocking judicial processes such as constitutional guarantees and ordinary laws. However, even with such restrictions, it is possible to guarantee the existence of media trials is evidence enough for the failing of attempts to ensure justice in the judicial system.
The paper makes recommendations to mitigate the issues provided while ensuring that the independence of the judiciary is not infringed upon. It is important to put into place more media legal controls and media codes of ethics in order to provide both freedom of the press and fairness of the judiciary.
Keywords: Judicial Integrity, Sensationalized Reporting, Legal Safeguards, Press Freedom, Judicial Fairness.
