Use of Media, Lobbying and Public Participation

In one line

Administration is influenced not only by law but by publicity, by organised persuasion and by letting the people affected have their say before a decision is taken.

In the words a student can write in an exam: besides the legal controls on administrative action there are political and social influences on it, and the syllabus names three. The media informs the public about administrative action and creates the pressure that makes formal accountability mechanisms operate, its freedom deriving from Article 19(1)(a) and being subject to Article 19(2). Lobbying is the organised representation of an interest to those exercising public power, which is legitimate where it is transparent and objectionable where it is concealed or purchased. Public participation is the involvement of affected persons and the general public in administrative decision making before the decision is taken, through consultation, publication of drafts, public hearings and access to information.

Why these belong in a law syllabus

Because administrative law is not only about courts, and the syllabus is right to include them. The formal mechanisms in [Public Accountability] all depend on somebody knowing that something has gone wrong and being willing to raise it. That is what the media does. And the controls in Module II which operate before a rule is made, publication and consultation, are the legal form of public participation: [Other Controls: Publication, Consultation and Procedural Safeguards].

The media

Its constitutional basis

There is no separate guarantee of freedom of the press in the Indian Constitution. The freedom of the press is part of the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a), and it is subject to the reasonable restrictions in Article 19(2): the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, contempt of court, defamation and incitement to an offence.

Its functions in administrative accountability

1. Disclosure. Reporting what an authority has done, which is often the first anybody outside the department knows of it.
2. Scrutiny. Examining a decision against the reasons given for it.
3. Agenda setting. Making an issue important enough that the legislature, an auditor or a court takes it up.
4. Sanction. Publicity is itself a consequence, and often the only immediate one, as noted in [Public Accountability].
5. Supplying the raw material of litigation, since a report often prompts the petition.

Its limits

Trial by media, in which an accusation is treated as a finding, prejudices both the person accused and any fair inquiry. Commercial and ownership pressures, which affect what is reported. Access, since the media can only report what it can find out, which is why the Right to Information Act 2005 matters more to journalism than any press law. Article 19(2) restrictions, and the law of contempt and defamation.