He was delivering the keynote address at a seminar on Human rights and the role of media at the newly inaugurated office of the Punjab Human Rights Commission (PHRC) here, this afternoon.

"We have a limited notion of human rights. The meaning of human rights transcends mere abuse of power. Even bad drinking water that impairs people's health and efficiency is a violation of rights," Justice Venkatachaliah said. He added that the role of media in highlighting the cause of human rights, "should include issues such as literacy, health, family relationships and not mere abuse of authority".

He also cautioned that self-regulation is necessary in both media and judiciary. He remarked that politicians had become brokers of people's anger and the media has failed to notice that. Citing a sample study conducted by the Commission that 78 per cent of the total deaths of prison inmates, most of them undertrials, had been due to pulmonary tuberculosis caused by the unhygienic, ill-ventilated and overcrowded jails, he said, "The media must address such unsung issues." Advocate General, Punjab, H.S. Mattewal, said that poverty and crime are the underlying causes of all human rights violations.

Responding to an observation made by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Kuldip Singh, that the Punjab government had failed in its promise to constitute a commission for looking into violations of human rights during terrorism. Mattewal pointed out that under Section 36 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, the commission could not take up cases over an year old.

Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express, remarked that the human rights movement had benefited from "internationalisation of human rights violations in Punjab and especially in Jammu and Kashmir." He stated the coming in of organisations like Asia Watch, HR Watch and Amnesty International forced India into setting up the NHRC. He added that the human rights movement was still in its infancy and people's understanding of human rights was limited to police excesses alone.

Justice V.K. Khanna, PHRC chairperson, stated that people needed to be sensitised "through the media". And that the newspapers had played a very important role in the pre-Independence era and a similar effort was required of the media now.