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Should the Judges Watch News? Indian Media and Issues in Jurisprudence

Should the Judges Watch News? Indian Media and Issues in Jurisprudence

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Should the Judges Watch News? Indian Media and Issues in Jurisprudence
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<strong>CENTRE FOR MEDIA STUDIES School Of Social Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University</strong> a Public lecture by <strong>Dr. Abhijit Roy</strong> Associate Professor, Dept. of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta on <strong>Should the Judges Watch News? Indian Media and Issues in Jurisprudence</strong> DATE: <strong>22nd January 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract :</strong> In the 'Law Commission of India 200th Report on Trial by Media' (August, 2006), there was a section titled 'Do publications in the media subconsciously affect the Judges?' It was only a year back that the Supreme Court, sentencing Mohammad Afzal Guru to death, said that the judgment was to satisfy "the collective conscience of the society". Many have acknowledged that Afzal Guru's death sentence and finally capital punishment in February 2013 was greatly influenced by public opinion as represented by the media through interfaces like the sms-poll. This paper would try to locate the broader historical context of such debates on the vulnerability of jurisprudence to the idea of 'community justice' in the era of a boom in privately-owned satellite television news. About the speaker : Abhijit Roy is Associate Professor at the Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta. A member of the editorial board of Journal of the Moving Image, Roy has published widely on television, popular culture and politics. Roy has recently co-edited Channeling Cultures: Television Studies from India (Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2014) and earlier wrote a book on Sergei Eisenstein (Papyrus, Calcutta, 2004). His recent articles include 'The Border Within: India and Manipur' in Beyond Borders ed. John Hutnyk (Pavement Books, London, 2012), 'A Reflexive Turn in Television Studies? Conjectures from South Asia' in Television at Large in South Asia eds. Shanti Kumar and Aswin Punathambekar (Routledge India, 2013) and 'Reading Space: Daftaripara' inStrangely Beloved: Writings on Calcutta ed. Nilanjana Gupta (Rupa/Raintree, New Delhi, 2014).

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Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.