Faheem Niaz
Senator (1k+ posts)
Islamabad: In the detailed judgment of suo moto action over Malik Riaz and Arsalan Iftikhar case the two member bench of Supreme Court has raised concerns about issues of media law and ethics.
The detailed judgment was released by Supreme Court here on Thursday.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja wrote in the detailed judgment and Kustice Khilji Arif Hussain ratified, It is indeed sad that the people of Pakistan were, for a number of days, held hostage to a fear about the independence and integrity of their countrys superior judiciary.
The matter came in limelight debate after Shaheen Sehbai revealed the allegations for the first time on a YouTube video.
The bench termed these allegations as utterly baseless and commented on the internet video as we are left wondering if giving an Internet-based interview without seeing any of the documents and then uploading such interview on YouTube was indeed the best way to warn the Judges of a conspiracy.
Bench noted that the ethic and legal framework of the media requires fairness and objectivity; it requires that journalists conduct due diligence before reporting any news so that rumours and insinuations are filtered out, particularly in matters of grave significance such as ones arising in this case.
Bench also noted that statement submitted by Kamran Khan, anchor of Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Sath, also evident on the dubious nature of evidence which Malik Riaz claimed to have.
Bench also criticized the famous investigative journalist Kamran Khan saying we have not found that any due diligence was undertaken to ascertain or verify the true facts.
Bench also marked that if appropriate investigations were conducted by the journalists then this situation could have been avoided, appropriate levels of due diligence could have avoided the situation which the whole nation including this Court found itself in.
