Court lifts media ban on Delhi gang-rape trial
INDIA: An Indian court overturned a gagging order on Friday
preventing media access to the trial of four men charged with
gang-raping a student on a bus in New Delhi last December, a prosecutor
said.
"The Delhi High Court has put safeguards in place and allowed one
journalist from an accredited national news daily to sit in court
proceedings of the December 16 gang-rape case," Dayan Krishnan, the
special prosecutor in the trial, told AFP.
"We are fine with that because of the safeguards.
"The court has also put restrictions on what can be reported by the
journalist. They cannot report anything about the victim or her family,
which is what we were worried about," Krishnan explained.
The December 16 gang-rape of the student, who was returning home from
a cinema, shocked India and has led to months of soul-searching, tough
new laws on rape and global attention on the country's endemic sex crime
problem.
Five men and a juvenile were arrested shortly after the crime and
they have been charged with gang-rape, robbery and murder following the
death of the 23-year-old victim who succumbed to horrific internal
injuries.
AFP
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