JOIN USHC issues notice to media outlets on Bollywood producers' plea to restrain their reporting
The Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice to Republic TV and Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari, Times Now and its editors Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar and others on a plea by Bollywood producers to restrain them against "irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory reporting" following the death of Sushant Singh Rajput on June 14.
Justice Rajeev Sakhdher asked the media organisations and individuals named in the civil suit to file their written submissions and posted the matter for consideration for Dec. 14.
During the hearing, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar and Akhil Sibal, appearing for the Film and Television Producers Guild of India and others, pointed out vitriolic attacks, insinuations and epithets used during their coverage.
Although the court pointed to the constitutional rights of the media in reporting, it lamented the lack of fair reportage and civility in discourse from the broadcasters.
"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," the court said.
The court told the counsel appearing for the TV channels that because they were engaged in prejudging things, there were more opinions and less news.
"What are we to do about this? It is a general remark across the board. All of you have to think about it. It is a little disheartening and demoralises everyone," the court said.
The court asked the plaintiff to include some individuals as parties and allowed them to amend the petition.
The plea asked the court to direct the specific media channels to refrain from "conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right to privacy of persons associated with Bollywood".
The petitioners also sought a direction to them to adhere to the provisions of the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, and to withdraw, recall and take down all defamatory content published by them against Bollywood.
They objected to the highly derogatory words used for Bollywood such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies” and expressions such as “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”.
The petitioners claimed that the privacy of the members of Bollywood was being invaded and their reputations were being irreparably damaged by painting the whole of Bollywood as criminals, seeped in drug culture, and making being part of Bollywood synonymous with criminal acts in the public imagination.