Freedom Of Press Indespensible To Democracy, Must Be Protected From Intimidation: Calcutta HC Allows Anticipatory Bail To ABP Ananda Journalist

The Calcutta High Court has recently allowed a plea for anticipatory bail moved by a journalist working with ABP Ananda News, who was allegedly falsely implicated in criminal cases after having taken videos of illegal sand mining. 

A division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi held:

Petitioner claims that he recorded illegal sand mining activities in pursuit of his journalist endeavours. There is an issue of false implication arising out of his journalistic work Freedom of press is indespensible to democracy. Freedom of press can be maintained by ringfencing the press from intimidation. A journalist is part of the press. His freedom to execute his journalistic endeavours needs to be protected. In such circumstances, we grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner. 

It was argued by the petitioner that he was a journalist working with ABP Ananda news channel, and had recorded videos of illegal sand mining while on an assignment.

It was submitted that to intimidate him, there were false criminal cases which had been filed against him.

Upon noting that freedom of the press could only be protected by ensuring that journalists were not intimated while carrying out their duties, the Court granted anticipatory bail, subject to certain conditions.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Cal) 29

Case: In the matter of : Ranjit Das @ Mohan Das

Case No: CRM (A) 127 of 2024

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