Laws affecting the media

Restrictions on Freedom of
Expression based on
Public Morals and Decency
 Obscenity
Restrictions on this ground are based on the need to prevent
the corruption of public morals
Section 292, Indian Penal Code
Makes it an offence to:
• sell, offer for hire, distribute, publicly exhibit or circulate
any obscene object;
• produce or have in one’s possession any such object for the
purpose of sale, hire, distribution etc.
• import, export, convey or advertise such material knowing
that it will be sold, offered for hire, etc.
• to take part in any business involving such material; or
• offer or attempt to do any of the above acts.
 The law does, however, make an exception in respect of
books, pamphlets, etc. which can be proved tobe published
for the public good, e.g. to further the interests of science,
literature, art, learning, etc. or which are kept for genuine
religious reasons
“Obscene object” is defined as one that is “lascivious, or
appeals to the prurient interest” or tends to “deprave and
corrupt anyone who is likely to read, see or hear the matter
contained or embodied in it”
Lascivious = inclined to lust, lewd
Prurient = given to indulgence of lewd ideas
Deprave = to pervert, to corrupt, to make morally bad
Ranjit Udeshi v. Union of India (1965)
Relevance of changing attitudes in society
 Section 20, Indian Post Office Act
Makes it an offence to transmit obscene matter by the post

The Customs Act 1962

Allows the government to ban the importation of matter
which is likely to offend against standards of decency or
morality

Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986

Makes it an offence to depict women, e.g. in advertisements,
in a derogatory or indecent or degrading manner

Drugs & Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements)

Act 1954
Makes it an offence to publish advertisements for certain
products, e.g. those used to procure miscarriages, prevent
conception, etc.
Ban on satellite channel ‘REN TV’ w.e.f. 5 Mar 2004 on the
grounds that “it is telecasting programmes that are against
good taste or decency and are likely to adversely affect
public morality”

Bombay Police issued notices to advertisers and

manufacturers of ‘VIP’ men’s underwear in May 2004 to
remove their “offensive” advertisements on street hoardings
and bus stops after receiving complaints from the public
‘Tits, Clits & Elephant Dicks’ exhibition (2008)
Books banned include:
• The Scented Garden : Anthropology of sex life in the Levant by Bernard
Stein (banned in 1945)
• Dark Urge by Robert W. Taylor (banned in 1955);
• The Jewel in the Lotus: A Historical Survey of the Sexual Culture of the
East (banned in 1968)
 Advertisements sought to be banned
• Close-Up Toothpaste: where the male and female models were seen in
an ‘implied’ kiss (one of them was a jailer and the other a prisoner).
Minister Sushma Swaraj was reported as saying: “If this kind of
commercial is shown, no parents would send their daughters for police
jobs or allow them to sit for IPS exams.”
• Bajaj Calibre motorcycle: where a male model was seen to take off his
shirt and run his fingers slowly all over the motorcycle as each part of it
takes the shape of a woman’s body. At the end of the commercial, he
takes off on the bike with a scantily-clad woman on the pillion. I&B
Ministry officials were quoted as saying that they were “waiting for
complaints from viewers”.

Obscenity in the Press

The Times of India/Hindustan Times Case (2001)
In Sept 2001, the Press Council of India issued a strong censure against
the Times of India and the Hindustan Times for carrying pictures of semi-
nude women, which it said were “obscene” and “derogatory of
womanhood”. Both the papers ignored the ruling, and the Times of India
threatened the complainant with action for defamation.