new delhi in a case of role reversal the supreme court on tuesday seemed to push the centre to exercise its powers under the cable tv networks regulation act against tv channels to have an effective oversight on the contents of tv programmes even as the centre argued that it respected the medias right to free speech and was loath to play the regulatora bench of cji sa bobde and justices as bopanna and v ramasubramanian expressed displeasure over the centres response to jamiat ulamaihinds petition alleging the government did precious little to stop the media from targeting muslims during the covid19 pandemic by making hateful reports on the tablighi jamaat congregation in nizamuddin in its affidavit the centre had said that by and large most mainstream newspapers and web portals reported responsibly on the event it said during the initial period of the pandemic when some tablighi jamaat members were found covid positive it received media and public attention it also detailed the number of accounts and urls that were blocked to stop circulation of fake news targeting the minority communityas the hearing progressed its scope expanded to cover whether the government should use the powers it enjoys to regulate content on tv channelsthe cji told solicitor general tushar mehta we are not satisfied with the centres affidavit we had asked what steps were taken by the government under the cable tv networks regulation act against fake news circulated by tv channels what is the grievance redressal mechanism under the law on both these points your affidavit is silent despite us asking for itwhen mehta promised to file a fresh affidavit the bench said what the tv channels show is of great consequence to the country how do you plan to control what channels are showing through law mehta said we the government dont want to control the content of tv channels we respect the right to free speech and expression of media the bench said we want to know what mechanism exists under the law to regulate the content telecast by tv channels if you have a mechanism then that should deal with the grievances raised by this petition if you dont have a mechanism then create one otherwise we will hand over the responsibility to the private body the sc kept the matter for hearing after three weekswatch centre advocates media free speech even as sc pushed for regulation