Media is the fourth pillar of democracy. Independent media is necessary to keep a check on the government and its organs. But with the increasing competition, media is overstepping the boundaries. Media has played an important role of watchdog in the investigation of misbehaviour by politicians and officials. Media is a crucial instrument of accountability and also instrument of communication. Media has certain freedom to keep on going with the routine purpose. Media has a freedom of speech and expression. Freedom of speech supports the right to information.

However, in the name of freedom of speech and expression ; it has been witnessed that media announces its decision about who is guilty even before the court has announced its judgement, which not only influences the mind of the judges or the jury but also take away the right of an individual to have a fair trial. Media plays an important role in shaping the opinions of an individual thus; there is a need to create a balance between an independent media and a fair trial.

The role of the executive is to maintain peace and good order, protection of law and arresting the offenders of law.The media and the lay person generally use the term ‘’law and order’’ and ‘’public order’’ mutually.

In gulam abbas and  ors vs state of U.P.  And ord the Supreme Court held that the preservation of public peace, safety and tranquillity is the primary function of the government

Every individual of India has certain freedoms. Article 19 states the freedom of speech and expression; freedom to assemble peacefully without arms.Citizen has the right to protest and they also have the right to peacefully assemble, but sometimes protests and demonstrations take a violent twist.

Cultural diversity and tolerance are both carried out by the character and the custom in the country; that accomplice them to religious communities. The amount of belief in the system of India has resulted in a certain hierarchy with religious beliefs and interpretationcalming extensive influence.Hence, the communal riots or conflicts are a form of human action.There are several riots in the human history which resulted in a lot of destruction.One of which was a communal riot in 1984; called the anti-sikh riots.

Second was in 2002, the godhra (Gujrat) riot

Also, the muzzafarnagar riot.

Babri masjid riots.

GODHRA RIOT

In the 2002, the godha riot was purely a communal in nature and erupted from the Sabarmati train burning incident. The police and the government took all the necessary steps to curb the riot.

The riots are required to be controlled by the police initially. So, obviously the police will be involved but the State being ultimately responsible for law and order, the State’s role should also be considered.

MUZZAFARNAGAR RIOT

The reports submitted by the Uttar Pradesh state that a video  was leaked in which two Hindu jat boys executed the mob which fuelled the riots in muzzafarnagar. Later, after the investigation it was revealed that it was shot in Pakistan. The riot in muzzafarnagar is still in question as what happened that a video provoked the riots.

Social media had an important role in the muzzafarnagar riots. The posts on social media platforms and the publishing of report by the Indian media affected the opinions of the common people. It tends to mould the views and actions of the people of the society.

It is important to know even to the police and other governing sources; how the media is used by the miscreants.

 Today not only, media is giving us the basic information about the recent events and also broadcasting the news of violence but the social media is misused for taking revenge or starting a riot. It is not possible for government to keep a track of all the activities carried out by the government. In one such incident, government played an important role.

 In august 2012, morphed pictures in the form of MMS were leaked by someone evoke communal riots against the people from northeast.

The government then tammed down this incident by banning bulk SMS and MMS for a period of time. However, these images were then uploaded on the websites in Pakistan and could be viewed by the viewers of the other countries easily.

Thus, the government has to depend upon micro blogging and social media networking sites – whose servers were located in US to ask them to help and to take actions against the posts. These companies could accessit, it took days but the objectionable content was taken down. However, it is difficult to take action can be taken against the owner of the sites that are situated in different country; as they are not bound to obey the law [1]

SOCIAL MEDIA MISUSE

Social media has become a platform where news spread like fire. The people share such messages without cross checking if it’s true. Also, sharing of inhuman content is one such example was recently, disturbing trend on social media was observed by Maharashtra cyber department where disturbing pictures of the deceased body of SushantSinghRajput was being circulated. However, immediate steps were taken by the police department stating that whoever found circulating the pictures will be liable to invite action and everyone should refrain themselves from circulating it however, the act was inhuman.[2]

 PLANS OF THE GOVERNMENT TO CURB THE MISUSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

●       To set up a cyber surveillance agencies inform about any malicious intent or content

●       To frame guidelines to block harmful or destructive content on the internet or social media.

●       To appoint a government approved authority in the IT for dealing with such situations, including removal of malicious content.[3]

 In a country like India, there are number of religions, languages and caste divisions and the police frequently meet incidents of mass protests. Hence is its essential to deal with such violent protests.

This also involves media where the police have to brief the media about the happenings; and developments if the protests go on for few days; to give a brief information to the public out there

THE  PADMAVAT  FILM  RIOT

The film Padmavat previously Padmanvati gave rise to protests. Itmainly harmed     the sentiments of the Hindu and Rajput community. The protests intensified in November, after the movie date release. The karnisena vandalized cinemas and also threatened the actors of the film. The court however resolved the dispute and also ordered the four states where movie was banned to ensure law and order is maintained.[4]

ARUSHI TALWAR CASE

The media has a great Impact on people, in building opinions of people; it also affects the political decisions and audience’s reaction in the society.

Newspapers which are transformed scandalous and proactive headlines tend to mould the opinions and actions of the individuals.

 One such incident is of Arushi talwar case, IT IS A BURNING EXAPLE OF media unethical practice. This results in loss of faith of citizens in police and the capability of the court of law to do justice. The electronic media has been consistently guilty and scaled new heights of irresponsibility by confounding facts and passing defamatory stories.[5]

SOCIAL MEDIA FAKE NEWS

Amid coronavirus, mass gathering of people was observed at the bandra station; where migrants gathered demanding transport for them to reach their homes.The police took vigorous steps by filing three FIRs in the bandra police station:First was against the people who assembled against the decision of lockdown.Second was against Vinay dubey who was aself-proclaimed labour leader who allegedly incited migrants to start walking towards their homes and also warned the government of possible protests if train service do not resume.Third was against a news reporter for running fake news that train service has been resumed.[6]

CONCLUSION

The media is now a full -fledged business. The name of the game is ratings, viewership, eyeballs and advertisements. In the scheme, news is whatever sells. This means anything that catches and grabs the attention of people. Or, in other words, ‘sensationalism.

The media is like a watchdog which gives us recent reports of the ongoing events and also acts against the government malfeasance and fosters greater transparency and accountability.  Hence, media has a freedom of press and lets people voice opinion against the government, expose corruption and malpractice.

Thus media enjoys rights by the constitution but to attract more audience and to investigate assuming the role of police is a major concern and threat to the administration of justice.People at large and media have the freedom of expression and thus it is being misused by political forces to limit public scrutiny of policies and action that have an impact on integrity and sovereignty of the state.

The government need to maintain a level of transparency and accountability which helps build upon independent and dynamic media which should not only be responsible but also impartial and is protected by law in its freedom to report and comment on public officials.