Freedom of press is an implied right guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a)of the Indian constitution. It is an important element of democracy and plays a vital role in its development. Media and press has always been one of the watchdog monitoring and keeping the three organs of the state on its toes to ensures fair administration, hence considered as the fourth pillar of the democracy. Press, media including social media plays a vital role in exchanging information between government and people. With the advent and development of internet and communication technologies, there is a paradigm shift in the role played by media in the society, it is more powerful now, and can generate public opinion and influence the process and administration of all three organs of the government. This is equally threatening for democracy and dangerous to the society too. Currently, there are countless reported instances throughout the world where media played a negative role and contributed to disputes, internal disturbances and many undesirable occurrences. Hence we can say that press and media is like a knife with two sharp edges, if not handled with care can be detrimental to the society and can endanger the whole fabric of democracy.
This paper is an attempt made by the author to find answers to certain fundamental questions like; Whether in public perception right to information means right to correct information? Can our press and media be castigated for infringing the fundamental rights of people to correct information by spreading fake news, misinformation’s and disinformation’s? Does infodemics and unethical reporting activities carried out by both electronic and traditional press media are in violation to the concept of freedom of press as conceived by Indian constitution? What are the challenges put forth by infodemics, fake news and
misinformation to the public during this COVID-19 emergency situation? To examine the aforementioned questions, the author here had adopted an empirical research through an online survey. This study unveils the opinion of different stakeholders of the society including academicians, lawyers, students and general public on the above questions. The author deliberates that this topic has a lot of relevance in the current pandemic situation and the
same would help the readers to understand the issues and challenges created by unethical and misleading reports and the need for a unique legal framework or mechanism for the effective regulation of freedom of press.