1. Court coverage
Contempt of Parliament and State Legislatures: The
Parliament expects "a television reporter should be
more cautious than a private citizen as his criticisms
are widely published." Such comments in respect of
Parliamentary proceedings or the performance of
any member on the floor of the House, if they
contain any personal attacks on individual members
or if the language of the comments is vulgar or
abusive, are not protected and cannot be deemed to
come within the bounds of fair comment or
justifiable criticism.

2. Court coverage
• Such writing constitute a breach of privilege
and contempt of the House on the principle
that such acts tend to destroy the House and
its members in the performance of their
functions and duties by diminishing the
respect due to them and by bringing them
into odium, contempt or ridicule.

3. Court coverage
• It is one thing to criticise the performance of a
Member of Parliament and quite another to report
Parliamentary proceedings. The Parliamentary
Proceedings (Protection of Publications) Act of
1956, popularly known as Feroz Gandhi Act,
provides that no person should be liable to any
proceedings-civil or criminal in respect of a
publication in a newspaper of a substantially true
report of any proceedings of either House of
Parliament. This Act was repealed during the
Emergency but has now been reenacted.

4. Court coverage
•
• The Act permits the press to report defamatory
statements in parliament without committing a
breach of privilege of Parliament and by
implication no legal action for the publication of
any such statement referring to any outsider. This
Act, how ever, applies only to the proceedings of
Parliament and not of State Legislatures which are
left free to enact their own legislation in that
respect.