Reporters hauled up for contempt

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">hyderabad: a division bench of the ap high court comprising justice bilal nazki and justice g raghuram on tuesday handed a suspended sentence of one month''s imprisonment to two legal reporters after finding some of their reports in contempt of court. the legal reporters of telugu dailies vaartha and andhra jyoti had filed news reports about a police complaint against a judge of the high court.upon notice from the advocate who made the contempt complaint, the editors and publishers of the newspapers submitted their apologies. the reporters, however, contested the matter, contending inter alia that they had merely reported a complaint without any intent to sensationalise or lower the image of the court. they also stated that they reported the news in pursuit of freedom of the press, which was of seminal value in a democratic polity. speaking for the bench, justice raghuram pointed out that the press does not enjoy any exclusive right under the constitution and added that the press is often a disparate collection of interests most of which pursue their commercial interests. the bench said that the defendants'' case, couched in the rhetoric of freedom of the press, was a puerile attempt to wriggle out of a sticky situation brought about by their inept pursuit of their journalistic profession. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">tribals'' detention</span> the division bench called for a report from the local district judge and superintendent of police of rangareddy district on a case of detention of 58 tribals of orissa at brahmanpally village of hayatnagar mandal. neelambar and two others from orisa had filed a writ petition complaining that 58 tribals including 28 women from orissa were travelling to mahbubnagar in search of employment when they were apprehended at secunderabad and detained under the custody of a local civil contractor, p narasimha rao. </div> </div>