Media and 'The Verdict'

The media is playing its role as a citizen watchdog by bringing lawlessness and crime to the forefront. With media actively campaigning for justice in the country’s high-profile cases, the question that one needs to ask is can the media influence crucial court judgments.Considering the judicial system in our country, where the verdict and evidence provided to the judges goes purely by the law book it’s very unlikely that excessive media coverage can have a hand in final judgments. I say this, as over the years many cases have seen prime suspects going scot-free when courts cited ‘not enough evidence’. The trend in high-profile cases have seen witnesses turning hostile or certain kind of evidences not acceptable by courts to pin down the accused. The media by actively playing citizen watchdog in such cases propels witnesses to testify and creates pressure on the courts to reopen such cases.
If the Media and public opinion were really decision-makers then you would see decisions such as politicians being convicted for their nexus with criminals or referendums being held for certain Govt. decisions such as the city name change.
If only the citizens of Bangalore had their say, you would actually know the number of its residents who actually endorse the name change. However leaving the names apart, the biggest name making waves in the media is of the actor Sanjay Dutt. His judgment day for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts is nearing and his movies are still running to packed houses.
The man has given India one of its most thought-provoking movies in Lage Raho Munnabhai and his fans have just multiplied. However as seen earlier you can be confident of the judges going purely by the rule-book in making their decisions. It also needs to be noted that Media hype is a double-edged sword; the vulnerability in the Media’s investigations can expose weaknesses in the case.
Everything said and done, I think we should accept reality and the media’s role in public opinion. The only point of restraint though should be is to avoid publicly declaring an individual guilty.
For more - read what different Newspapers have to say