Delhi High Court To 2 Channels, Sued By Filmmakers: No Defamatory Content

Some of the film industry’s biggest names had come together in the unprecedented legal action.

New Delhi:

Nearly a month after leading Bollywood filmmakers filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against “irresponsible reporting by certain media houses”, the court today told two channels – Republic TV and Times Now – that “no defamatory content” should be displayed on their channels or uploaded on social media. Some of the film industry’s biggest names, including Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra and Farhan Akhtar, came together in the unprecedented legal action against the media houses. 

The lawsuit was filed amid the fallout of the Sushant Singh Rajput death investigation, which is being investigated by three probe agencies – the CBI, the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Enforcement Directorate. The suit was filed against Republic TV, and Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari of the channel; and Times Now and its top faces Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar.

“Media can’t run a parallel trial. You’re a broadcaster… show news. There is less news and more opinion,” the court told the channels today, stressing that “things are being pre-judged”.

Amid exchange of arguments, the court today recalled the circumstances under which British Royal Princess Diana died in 1997. “Bollywood celebrities are entitled to privacy. Look what happened in the case of Princess Diana… she died because she was racing away from the media. You can’t just go on like this. The courts are the last ones to want to regulate,” Justice Rajiv Shakdher said. 

“Even cuss words are being used during live debates. Nobody is stopping from reporting but language and the manner has to be right,” the court said. 

During the hearing, as Justice Rajiv Shakdher asked the media houses – AGR Outlier Media Pvt Ltd and Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd – to ensure that no defamatory content is uploaded on social media platforms or displayed on their channels, the lawyer representing Times Now asked for clarity: “How do you define defamation here?”

The court has sought written statements in two weeks on the case, and recorded the assurances by channels to follow the Cable TV Act & Rules, and the Programme Code. 

The channels used “highly derogatory words and expressions for Bollywood”, said the producers, listing terms like “dirt”, “filth”, “scum” and “druggies” used over the past few months. 

“The ‘Programme Code’ is being violated in this coverage. It prohibits innuendo and half truths. There is a statutory requirement to comply with this code. But these “news reports” violate the rules,” the court was told by the filmmakers. 

The producers had earlier complained about the channels using provocative expressions like — “It is Bollywood where the dirt needs to be cleaned”; “All the perfumes of Arabia cannot take away the stench and the stink of this filth and scum of the underbelly of Bollywood”; “This is the dirtiest industry in the country”; and “Cocaine and LSD-drenched Bollywood”.

While the producers didn’t call for blanket media gag in the Sushant Singh Rajput investigation, they wanted the court to stop reportage that violates the law. They also wanted the channels to “withdraw, recall and take down all the defamatory content published by them against Bollywood”.

NDTV is not among the channels facing charges in the high court. 

Times Now Editor-in-Chief Rahul Shivshankar, in response, had said cases against his channel’s journalists were “bad precedent”.