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Mr Justice Sudarshan Reddy having a word with the senior journalist, Mr P. Venkateswara Rao, at a seminar on `Rights, privileges and limitations of the Press' in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. - C.V. Subrahmnyam

Visakhapatnam, Dec. 14

"THE Press has no privileges. This should be clearly realised. It has got the freedom of expression, but it is the same as enjoyed by any Indian citizen. Beyond that, the Press can't claim to have any extra privileges,'' observed Mr Justice Sudarshan Reddy, a judge in the Andhra Pradesh High court, here on Sunday.

He was speaking at a seminar organised by the Visakhapatnam Journalists' Forum and others on `The rights, privileges and limitations of the Press'. The judge remarked that the Press should not claim any special privileges and "all privileges are vested in the great public of India according to the Constitution''.

Dwelling at length on the topic, he said it needed to be emphasised, as the Press was being captured by the capitalists. "It is the avowed policy of the Government at present that market dynamics should determine everything and therefore the Press may go in future into alien hands or undesirable elements having the requisite capital. Therefore, no special privileges can be given to the Press,'' he said.

Referring to the privileges of the legislators, he said the genesis of those privileges could be traced to the conflict between the peoples' representatives and the Crown in the budding democracies of Europe in the Middle Ages.

"There was a fierce battle between the Crown and the representatives of people and the privileges were conceived to protect those fledgling democracies,'' he explained.

Currently, however, there was a need to codify those privileges to avoid the kind of problems cropping up in recent times, he said.

Mr N. Vidhya Prasad, Principal District and Sessions judge, also echoed the same view.

Mr P. Venkateswara Rao, former Editor of Andhra Prabha and former Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Press Academy, said the Press should be responsible and do a bit of soul-searching.

"Three decades ago, I, along with others, acquired a site in my capacity as a journalist and built a house. Now, when I introspect, I feel we should not have done it. Journalists should not hanker after house sites and claim other such privileges,'' he said.

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