Some of the biggest names in the film industry had joined in the unprecedented legal action.
New Delhi:
Almost a month after top Bollywood filmmakers filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against “irresponsible reporting by certain media outlets,” the court told two channels, Republic TV and Times Now, today that it “did not must show defamatory content “on its channels. or uploaded to social networks. Some of the biggest names in the film industry, including Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra and Farhan Akhtar, joined in the unprecedented legal action against the media. .
The lawsuit came amid the aftermath of the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, which is being investigated by three investigative agencies: the CBI, the Office of Narcotics Control and the Directorate of Enforcement. The lawsuit was filed against Republic TV and the channel’s Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari; and Times Now and its top face Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar.
“The media cannot make a parallel judgment. You are an announcer … show news. There is less news and more opinion,” the court told the channels today, highlighting that “things are being judged.”
Amid an exchange of arguments, the court today recalled the circumstances in which the British royal princess Diana died in 1997. “Bollywood celebrities have a right to privacy. Look what happened in the case of Princess Diana .. . She died because she was being persecuted by the media. You can’t just go on like this. The courts are the last to want to regulate, “Judge Rajiv Shakdher said.
“Even profanity is used during live debates. Nobody stops reporting, but the language and manner must be correct,” the court said.
During the hearing, when Judge Rajiv Shakdher asked the media, AGR Outlier Media Pvt Ltd and Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd, to ensure that no defamatory content was uploaded on social media platforms or displayed on their channels , the attorney representing Times Now asked for clarity: “How is defamation defined here?”
“You represent the fourth pillar (of democracy), and people are scared by the condition of the fourth estate in this country,” Judge Shakdher once told the Times Now attorney.
“15 years ago, there was an incident. A teacher in Delhi was accused by a television channel of inappropriately exposing children. She was almost lynched. But none of that news about her was true. She didn’t even have the money to host a case of defamation against the channel, “said the judge in another instance during the hearing.
“We expect fair reporting, but sadly that is not happening. Not just in India but all over the world. We used to find Doordarshan obsolete, but now I wish it would come back. The black and white Doordarshan was much better,” he said.
The court has requested a written response in two weeks on the case and has registered the guarantees of the channels to follow the Law and the Cable Television Rules and the Program Code.
Lawyer Malvika Trivedi, a representative of Republic TV, told the court: “We cannot present an answer in two weeks because my client is in judicial custody.” He was referring to the arrest of Arnab Goswami last week from his home in Mumbai. However, the judge replied: “It’s a great company. I’m sure there are other people.”
“The ‘Program Code’ is being violated in this coverage. It prohibits innuendo and half-truths. There is a legal requirement to comply with this code. But these ‘news reports’ violate the rules,” the filmmakers told the court.
The channels used “words and expressions very derogatory to Bollywood,” the producers had previously said, listing terms such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum” and “drug addicts” used in recent months.
While the producers did not call for a widespread media gag in the Sushant Singh Rajput investigation, they wanted the court to stop reporting that violated the law. They also wanted the channels to “remove, recall and remove all defamatory content posted by them against Bollywood.”
NDTV is not among the channels facing charges in the superior court.
Times Now editor-in-chief Rahul Shivshankar, in response, said the past cases against his channel’s journalists were “a bad precedent.”
.
