Times Now case: Defamation could get expensive

“The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked Times Global Broadcasting Company, which runs English news channel Times Now, to deposit Rs 20 crore in the court over a defamation suit filed against it by a former Supreme Court judge,” reports Indian Express. “A Pune district court had ordered the company to pay Justice (retd) PB Sawant Rs 100 crore in damages, and Times Global had appealed to the high court against it,” the report adds. [caption id=“attachment_95504” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The progress of the case will be watched closely by all news media, politicians, celebrities and other targets of alleged defamation. Screengrab from timesnow.tv”]  [/caption] “Justice Sawant had sued the channel for displaying his photo wrongly for about 15 seconds during a 10 September 2008 news report on a provident fund scam allegedly involving Calcutta High Court judge Justice PK Samanta. The report, that mistakenly showed Sawant’s photo in place of Samanta, also said several judges of the higher judiciary were involved in the scam,” says the Indian Express. The progress of the case will be watched closely by all news media, politicians, celebrities and other targets of alleged defamation. The Times Now – Sawant spat is one of many high-profile defamation suits being heard currently.  Anna Hazare, for example, is battling a Shiv Sena MLA in two defamation cases. “The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed that the two defamation cases filed by Shiv Sena MLA Sureshdada Jain against social activist Anna Hazare, at Jalgaon and Mumbai, be clubbed and tried together. Jain had lodged the two complaints in May 2003 after Hazare made certain allegations against him at a press conference,” reported IBNlive. Tamil Nadu chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is defending herself in two suits filed by former chief minister K Karunanidhi. “Two separate private complaints have been filed on behalf of the chief minister against Jayalalithaa’s remarks which were clearly defamatory”. One complaint quoted an article that appeared in newspapers on 13 April in which she alleged that the DMK in connivance with police officials, both at the centre and in the state, planned to unleash violence on the day of polling, The Times of India had reported at that time. How the courts decide on the cases mentioned above and in similar cases could very well change news media and politicking in India. If the Bombay High Court does, indeed, uphold the opinion of the Pune district court, all media outlets will have to put in checks and balances to protect themselves against similar (and dissimilar) suits. Similarly, the Jain-Hazare and Karunanidhi-Jayalalithaa cases have immediate implications on whether politicians and activists can get away with unsubstantiable allegations. Neither of the two is bad; media needs to exercise care and politicians and activists alike need to think before they speak.