Media As Fourth Pillar Of Democracy Has Failed The Country: Justice Kurian Joseph

During a seminar hosted today by Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) at Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi, retired Supreme Court Justice Kurian Joseph said that the media houses, as the fourth pillar of democracy, they have "failed to defend" the democracy, the Constitution and the truth.

"Except a couple of media in the digital side, we do not find any fearless, truthful version of the facts coming out...the greatest blow to democracy is that the fourth pillar has failed the country...forget about the first three pillars, fourth pillar is the media...they have failed to defend democracy, they have failed to defend the Constitution, they have failed to defend the truth", the Judge said while addressing a gathering of former judges of Supreme Court and High Courts, senior advocates and members of society assembled for the seminar.

Initially, he discussed the various issues surrounding the Master of Roster business.  He highlighted that there is a perception about Constitutional Courts focusing only on the 'right to life' part of Article 21 of the Constitution, while forgetting the second part ie 'personal liberty', even though the latter is the best part.

To quote the Judge, "why should there be life without liberty? If you're taking away the liberty part of a person, there's no point in giving him the life part. I am of the strong view that our Constitutional courts should keep in mind Article 21, should be understood giving equal importance to both aspects of life and liberty. But the perception now is that life is ofcourse guarded, but liberty is ignored".

Coming to the whistleblowers aspect, the Judge said that there aren't many whistleblowers these days. Even though media is the fourth pillar of democracy, it has failed to do its role in defending the Constitution and truth.

"The way the lungs are crushed in the country today so that nobody will blow the whistle is a very dangerous trend for the country. So, we need to support, stand up, speak out, stay alert, and need to stay with at least a few of those whistleblowers who are left in the country," he said.

The event can be watched live here.