The Madras High Court has restrained print as well as electronic media from publishing or telecasting any material pertaining to the deposition of either the victims or other witnesses in the 2019 Pollachi sexual abuse case. It also has prohibited the media from publishing photographs or videos of the victims or the witnesses even in blurred or morphed forms.
Justice M. Dhandapani ordered that the media should also not publish any documentary or digital evidence that gets marked during the course of the ongoing trial in the sexual abuse case. “In essence, the print and electronic media are restrained from publishing any oral or documentary material connected with the trial of the case,” the judge clarified.
He also warned that any infraction by the media, with respect to the restraint order passed by the court, would entail severe action against the media house concerned and directed the High Court Registry to mark a copy of his order to the Press Council of India for being circulated among all the print and electronic media houses in the country.
