Lawyers close Kerala High Court doors on mediapersons again

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday witnessed tense moments when a group of lawyers prevented eight legal correspondents from covering the court proceedings. The journalists said a group of lawyers informed the correspondents, including three women journalists, who were covering proceedings in the court of Chief Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar, that journalists were not allowed to enter the High Court premises. The journalists alleged that the lawyers even threatened them with dire consequences if they went ahead with attending the courts.

The scribes took up the matter with the Chief Justice who directed them to meet the High Court registrar. Media persons who reached the registrar's room under police security filed a written complaint against the lawyers, saying they had been threatened and prevented from carrying out their professional duty. The journalists were later safely taken out of the court premises under police protection. The legal correspondents said they went to cover the court proceedings following a safety assurance offered by the High Court authorities.

Legal correspondents have been abstaining from reporting court proceedings since July this after a group of advocates attacked media persons outside the Kerala High Court complex here, leaving some journalists and lawyers injured. The Kerala Union of Working Journalists had alleged that the advocates resorted to violent protest against the media as they were provoked by its coverage of an alleged attempt by a government pleader to molest a woman here.