Delhi govt gives draft of guidelines on police-media interaction

The Delhi government today submitted to the high court the draft guidelines for police's interaction with media and said authorities should not divulge the modus operandi of major operations to news persons while attempting to nab criminals and terrorists.

Filing the draft guidelines by YS Dadwal, Delhi police commissioner, before a division bench of chief justice AP Shah and justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, solicitor general Gopal Subramanium said: "When major operations are launched to nab the criminals, terrorists, the modus operandi of such operations should not be divulged to the media...".

"In cases where national security is at stake, no information should be shared with the media till the whole operation is over or until all the accused persons have been apprehended...," the draft said.

A senior law officer submitted before the bench that as per  proposed guidelines, the police should not give any opinion or judgemental statements to the media in any ongoing trial and added there should not be any violation of court directions and other guidelines.

Taking a cue from the practice adopted by various countries including London Metropolitan Police, the petitioner has suggested that only designated officers should disseminate information to the media on major crimes and law and order incidents.

It was suggested that the information that may jeopardise the successful conclusion of an investigation will not to be released by media. The draft guidelines also propose that media should not release the names of suspects until his arrest or express any opinion over the merit of the case.

Media should not reveal the identity of the victims of the sex offences and informations on child abuse and juvenile cases, it said.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO, Act Now For Harmony and Democracy, seeking direction to the government for media-related guidelines alleging that a news channel had reported the confessional statements of suspected terrorists before the police filed them in a court in the September 2008 Jamia Nagar shootout case.

The petitioner also demanded action against police officials for allegedly leaking confessional statements made before them by the suspected terrorists. The accused are suspected terrorists allegedly involved in the Delhi serial blasts.