Restraining of media houses, a suit by Bollywood

Recently the media in the name of broadcasting trending news is actually passing derogatory and defamatory remarks to bollywood industry as a whole without having any evidence to corroborate with the news which they are broadcasting and going to the extent of giving public the ‘truth’ on a certain date and time which is provided to public in advance so as to increase the viewership of their channels. Media houses instead of broadcasting the news took over the role of judiciary and forensic department of the country thereby providing the cause of death of a person and the person who is guilty of committing such an act. The issue arose after the demise of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput who was found dead in his apartment on 14^th June, 2020, the demise was ruled out as suicide due to mental health issues by every media house in the country, a month later father of late actor filed First Information Report against the actor’s former partner (Rhea), her brother and others of abetting to his Suicide. This led central agencies to come into picture to investigate the money laundering issue which further led to Narcotics Control Bureau taking the charge to find out drug angle in the demise of late actor. The media coverage now changed their stand from death by mental issue to death due to black magic performed by the Accused (Rhea) ‘The Accused was found Guilty’, accused took all control of late actor finances by sipping him dosages of drugs in regular intervals which drove him to a stage of paranoia thereby killing himself in the end.

This led to full-fledged investigation of Bollywood industry from drugs point of view, few name came forward in the same investigating authorities summoned those whose names came up during the investigation, the headlines were changed again to ‘Drugs, Addiction and Bollywood’, ‘Drug Home Delivery’ etc. During the day media houses were after celebrities asking them are you an addict or not because we got one photo which can prove you are and by night the debate continuous that this industry is filthy people sleep and wake up with drugs and all are peddlers. Somewhere down the line Covid-19 Pandemic, collapsing economy and farmer’s protest were unheard of. The Bollywood Drug Mafia report was carried out by many leading news channels as the ultimate news to increase their TRP channels were now using highly derogatory words and expressions for Bollywood such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies” etc.

In the light of same bollywod industry retaliated by filing a Civil Suit in Delhi High Court on 12^th October, 2020 by prominent Bollywood industry association and many producers, praying to the court to direct Republic TV, Mr. Arnab Goswami and Mr. Pradeep Bhandari of Republic TV, Times Now, Mr. Rahul Shivshankar and Ms. Navika Kumar of Times Now as well as social media platforms to refrain from making or publishing irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood as a whole and members of Bollywood, and to restrain them from conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right to privacy of persons associated with Bollywood. In the complaint it has been mentioned that  news channels have been "openly flouting" the Programme Code framed under Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 which states that No person shall transmit or re-transmit through a cable service any programme unless such programme is in conformity with the prescribed programme code mentioned under Rule 6 of The Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, Rule 6(d) states that it should not contain anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half truths, Rule 6(f) states it should not contain anything amounting to contempt of court and many other. The suit mentions that Defendants shall not conduct a media trail of their own and shall carry out healthy news reporting by not intervening in the court’s investigation and not pass any derogatory remarks against any person or industry as a whole.

Twelve years ago India saw another media trial of Arushi Talvar Murder case the media after a few months of death of Arushi Talvar and servant Hemraj decleared that both the deceased were having an affair and upon knowing this the girl’s father killed both of them. This verdict was passed on by media years before court and CBI could draw the conclusion of the double homicide, The Supreme Court had also called out the media for acting as a super investigating agency in the murder case. The famous Nanavati case which shook India in 1957 was also a result of media trial because it deliberately affected the mind of jury in the ongoing court trial thereby helping a convicted Nanvati getting pardoned from court.

The issue is not just with Indian media, take for instance Rideau Vs. Louisiana in which American Supreme Court laid down the test of presumed prejudice, the case involved a bank robbery, kidnapping of three of the bank employees and subsequent murder of one of them. An interview of accused was telecasted for three days wherein he was shown in jail confessing to his guilt thereby affecting his right to fair trial, supreme court was of the opinion that even before initiation of the trail the accused was declared guilty because the tape was telecasted for three days where there was no lawyer to advice the accused to stand mute. Another famous issue was of Bill Clinton Impeachment hearings, in December 1998 the house of Representative voted to impeach President Bill Clinton on the counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, all the media houses in the country wrote this headline ‘Trail of the Century’, Ex-President was guilty of perjury and sex perpetrator unfortunately for all the media houses Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in February, 1999, just before the century was over.

Now that the matter has been filed before ‘actual court’, proceedings will be held to decide whether the media houses are operating as per the programme code which is mentioned under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 and is the method of reporting is causing defamation to any person or industry thereby violating the fundamental principles of the citizen of India or the media is only exercising their rights conferred under Article 19 of the Constitution. It is to be seen how far freedom of speech and expression can be exercised and where it affects the Rights and personal liberty of other personnel. This suit is not just between Bollywood industry and Media houses, it is between the very basic fundamental rights conferred upon us, can someone’s right to exercise trade cause deliberately or in-deliberately harm to other’s personal liberty and privacy. And to know more we might just have to stay tuned!!