On petitions filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and few others, Supreme Court orally remarked "Where is our nation headed". This remark of the Supreme Court has come on the issue of Hate Speech being promoted on Media and the Social Media.

The Court during the course of hearing said that "The role of the anchor is very important. Hate speech either it takes place in the mainstream television or it takes place in the social media. Social media. Social Media is largely unregulated….As far as mainstream television channel is concerned, we still hold sway, there the role of anchor is very critical because the moment you see somebody going into hate speech, it's the duty of the anchor to immediately see that he doesn't allow that person to say anything further. Unfortunately, many a times somebody wants to say something he is muted, person is not given proper time, he is not even treated courteously"

"Freedom of expression of the press, we don't have it separately unlike the US….there should be free debate no doubt about it but, you should also know where to draw the line because there is a huge influence particularly with the visual media. they produce a very serious effect on your brain. The freedom is for the listener. The freedom of speech is actually for the benefit of the listener. How would the listener ever make up his mind after listening to a debate where it is just a babble of voice, you cannot even make out what is happening."

"We should have a proper legal framework unless we will have a framework people will continue and the most important point is where is our nation headed, if it is hate speech on which we are feeding on where is our nation headed".

"Political parties will come and go but the nation will endure the institution including press, it is important part, without a totally independent press no country can go forward, its absolutely important that we have true freedom, there. 

"Hate Speech completely poisons the very fabric…It cannot be permitted"
""The problem is we don't have a regulatory mechanism for TV. I believe that all channels were fined heavily in England. We don't have that system here. Law means sanction, sanctions must be effected. the problem is that they are not being dealt with firmly. If sanctions are effected this will go. Any anchor will have his own views, any anchor will not diverge from the view the channel is taking, they will all be intertwined, you can't divulge from it, but what is wrong is when you have people of different views you are calling them and you are not allowing them to express those views. in doing that you are bringing hate and your TRP is going up and you are driven by that and nobody is going to look into it and take care of it then it is very sad".

The Next date of hearing of the petition is on 23.11.2022.

Case Details:-

Writ Petition (Civil) No. 943/2021

Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay... Petitioner

Versus

Union of India... Respondent