Respecting court is seen as an expression of the universal desire to get justice. Justice system is not a cloistered one and judges have to be broad-minded to be able to do justice as liberally and fairly as possible. To do justice is a highly sensitive affair and the people’s faith in the judiciary has to be protected. Judges do not claim that their judgements cannot be criticised, but not like political criticism, personalized.The justice system’s sensitivity is important for its own sake and not for the sake of the judges. So expressing constructive and thoughtful criticism has been welcomed by judges themselves. Because most judgements are appealable. But nothing should be said, not just only for the respect of judges, that will ridicule or undermine the people’s confidence in the judiciary. There should be no indication of ridicule in the conduct of the judges or attributing motive to them. When politics is controversial and thousands of people are arrested then in granting bail, one has to think of how best to maintaining balance between the government’s arbitrary arrest and speedy justice.So journalism dealing with court reportings has to make a distinction between honest and respectful criticism and ridiculing the judges. It should be the responsibility of the press to maintain mutually helpful relationship between the press and the judiciary, because these two institutions together play a vital role in upholding the rights and freedoms of the people and the press. So it is a relief to see that the contempt proceedings against seven journalists ended on understanding the need of saving the respectability of the judges and the judicial process. There is no scope for doubts and hesitations that where the judiciary and the press are strongly and independently on the side of people’s rights, government’s arbitrariness will not have an easy time.
