The Kerala High Court recently said that “sting operations” by the press, though not entirely accepted by the legal system, must be exempted from prosecution if carried out by recognised media houses in the larger public interest.
A sting operation is a deceptive ploy meant to implicate a person committing a crime. It is used in law enforcement and less commonly in journalism.
The High Court’s comments were made in a July 8 order, in which the criminal charges invoked against two journalists with Reporter TV were quashed.
The court was considering whether the reporters could be exempted from prosecution under the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services Act for trying to surreptitiously record the statement of an incarcerated man in connection with the 2013 Kerala solar panel scam case.
The man, Joppan, used to be part of former Chief Minister Oomen Chandy’s staff. According to the prosecution, the reporters had not sought permission to record him on their mobile phones when they visited him in jail.
However, the court said: “The Fourth Estate [the press] is essential to a healthy democracy, ensuring that power is not abused and citizens are well-informed and engaged in the democratic process…To achieve these goals, there may be some activities from their side which are normally not permitted by law. One such method is ‘sting operation’.”
The court noted that the two accused reporters had admitted to conducting a sting operation and reviewed relevant precedents to determine if, in their case, the act constituted an offence.
The court ruled that there was no offence in the matter.
It added that the legality of sting operations, by law enforcement and journalists, needs to be scrutinised on a case-by-case basis.
“If the [aim of the] ‘sting operation’ is to find out the truth and to convey the same to the citizen, without any malafide intention, the press is exempted from prosecution,” the court held. “The freedom of the press may not include the ‘sting operation’ in all situations.”
The court warned that sting operations carried out with the intention “to target an individual and humiliate them” would not invite any legal protection for those responsible.
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