The Karnataka high court on Wednesday directed the Union government to set up a self regulatory body to monitor the broadcasting media in the country.

The directive was issued by a special bench of the high court while dealing with a case pertaining to the major violence which broke out between the journalists and lawyers a couple of months back.

The bench also directed the constitution of a special investigation team to probe the violence. The bench comprising Justice Ajith Gunjal and Justice Nagarathna stated that the team shall be headed by R K Raghavan, while Roop Kumar Dutta shall be the convenor of the special team. The bench stated that the two officers shall be authorised to choose their team.

The bench further directed the Karnataka government to issue a notification within 10 days to constitute the special team and added that the special team shall submit a report to the jurisdictional court within three months.

The bench suggested to the Union government that there ought to be a monitoring committee to monitor the broadcasting media and hence an authority on the lines of either the Bar Council of India or the Medical Council of India be set up at the earliest.