Law student's PIL against news websites

Brajesh Rajak, a student of National Law School of India University, has sought action against the media organisations that have offensive content like semi-nude photos of women on their websites. The undergraduate law student filed the writ petition on Thursday after his request to the companies to remove offensive content did not elicit any response.

“The photos and articles do not have any artistic, literary or social values in them. Even if they have any such values, there has to be some restrictions upon distribution of the obscene content to minor children,” states the petition.

Further, the PIL mentions that the websites are a great tool to enhance the knowledge of masses and strengthen the right to freedom of speech provided by Constitution of India. However, certain websites are misusing this right by uploading offensive content.

The petition also refers to  the case Doordarshan v/s Anand Patwardhan AIR 2006 SC 3346, where the Supreme Court had categorically stated that if an average person finds the work taken as a whole appealing to prurient interest, depicts sexually explicit conduct in a patently offensive way and lacks any serious artistic or literary value, then such material is not protected by law.

The petitioner did not want to challenge the freedom of speech and expression of the media organisations, but only wanted to make sure that an average man of society is not exposed to sexually explicit images while browsing the internet for news.