Delhi HC refuses to interfere with penalty on media house for showing animal cruelty without warning

The Delhi High Court has refused to interfere with a “penalty of warning” imposed by the Centre on a media house showing animal cruelty without warning or blurring the clip, saying it hoped that a professional broadcaster would bear in mind the minimum precautions to be taken when showing distressing content.

The media house, in the instant case, aired on February 22, 2021, an incident of an elephant being mercilessly beaten by its caretakers.

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Justice Yashwant Varma said that the court did not intend to deprecate the act of bringing the incident to the notice of the viewers and highlighting the issue of cruelty towards animals but in the present case, it was undisputed that the visual clips were neither blurred nor were the viewers forewarned to exercise discretion while watching the “barbaric action” on display along with the animal's pain.

“While the act of the petitioner (media house) in bringing that incident to the notice of the viewers and thus highlighting the issue of cruelty towards animals is not intended to be deprecated, the Court would have hoped that a professional broadcaster would have borne in mind the minimum precautions which must be exercised while broadcasting content which may cause distress and disturb the sensibilities of an ordinary and prudent viewer,” said the court in its order dated July 20.

The court stated that in view of the admitted facts, there was no justification to interfere with the order passed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

“It is not disputed that the visual clips which were originally broadcast were neither blurred nor did the presenter forewarn the viewing public to exercise discretion bearing in mind the barbaric action of the caretakers and the pain and distress of the animal which was displayed”. Accordingly and for all the aforesaid reasons, the challenge to the impugned order fails,” the court said.

The petitioner media house challenged the order of March 17, 2022, issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting imposing the penalty of warning on it in terms of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.

The order of penalty was passed by the Centre after it took cognizance of a complaint concerning the broadcast and put the petitioner on notice.