Dec 16 gangrape: Court takes up foreign media's coverage plea

The Delhi High Court Friday issued notice to the city police on a plea of a group of foreign correspondents here seeking permission to cover the day-to-day trial of the Dec 16 gangrape case.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher, issuing notice to police, asked them to file their response by July 11.

Members of the Foreign Correspondents' Club had moved the court seeking review of the March 22 order that allowed the national print and electronic media to cover the trial. The foreign correspondents said that they were registered with the Indian government's Press Information of Bureau (PIB) and are reporting to various foreign media as responsible journalists.

"Since publication of journals, magazines, newspapers for which members of applicant society are reporting is permitted to be circulated in India and abroad and PIB also recognises the same, members of the applicant association be permitted to report about the trial of the case of gang rape...," the plea said.

Justice Shakdher earlier on March 22 lifted the media gag order passed by the trial court.

The court, allowing the plea of a group of accredited journalists from the high court, also set aside Delhi Police's Jan 5 advisory which said the proceedings in the case cannot be reported as the lower court had already taken cognizance of the charge sheet and the magisterial court's Jan 7 order for in-camera trial in the case.

The 23-year-old woman was gangraped and brutalised by six men in a moving bus on Dec 16 last year. She died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.