…like a blogosphere when a blogger has been served a legal notice. A recent move by NDTV to silence a blogger who had criticized the channels Managing Editor Barkha Dutt, and it’s coverage of the Mumbai attacks has several bloggers (including journalists) up in arms.
The blogger, Chyetanya Kunte, has put up an unconditional apology and deleted the offending post, a cached of which can be viewed here. Reactions have followed, with DesiPundit aggregating posts from across the Indian blogosphere; Prem Panicker uses statements made by Dutt reacting to the criticizm for her coverage of the Mumbai attacks to highlight an apparent contradiction. I concur with Panicker’s assessment of the situation: an opinion criticizing her coverage is legit, but quoting a potentially defamatory wikipedia entry, and as well as calling her names is asking for trouble. Slanderous content, ”free speech” or not, will invite legal trouble.
Interestingly, Dutt also has a Facebook group with users dedicatedly criticising her coverage of the Mumbai Attacks. Are they next?
This isn’t the first instance of bloggers getting into legal trouble with media companies over their content: as far back as 2005, Mediaah!, a media blog by Pradyuman Maheshwari who recently joined the Exchange4Media Group as the Editor in Chief for Exchange4Media and Impact was forced to shut down after being served a legal notice by the Times of India group. Someone then launched Mediaha, with some of the deleted content. My take on the issue back then can be read here. Been a long time…
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8 Comments until now.
Firstly, am surprised that NDTV actively indulges in Online Reputation Management and tries to take down potentially disruptive content from the net. Secondly, I think we are all just riding this publicity wave right now. Let me ask this to everyone who just read this post right now:
WILL YOU CARE EVEN AFTER A MONTH IF NDTV STICKS TO THEIR CURRENT STANCE AND DOES NOTHING ABOUT IT?
Asfaq:
my interest in this is academic, and I'm not looking to join the blogwagon/blogmob, at the risk of inviting their ire.
It's one thing to criticize reportage, quite another to call someone an idiot in a published, public medium. That's slanderous, and NDTV and Barkha Dutt have every right to take up a legal recourse. In that context, I agree with the stand that NDTV has taken, even though I did not like Dutt's coverage of 26/11.
What I find more interesting is that fact that Kunte was also taken to task for quoting a secondary source that published something that is potentially defamatory. In that context, shouldn't they have sent a notice to Wikipedia first, and then followed up with Kunte?
This is more than someone calling Barkha an idiot. I have a feeling that bloggers are going to celebrate a major victory very soon.
Real Talibans of India – Media
When a female journalist called Soumya Vishwanathan was killed in India’a national capital, the Chief Minister of Delhi Smt Sheila Dixit blamed the dead female journalist for her own tragedy by saying that she was too adventurous. The Media wholeheartedly supported Mrs Dixit and went gaga over her shortly afterwards, when she won the Delhi Assembly elections.
When Scarlett Keeling was raped and killed in Goa and the needle of suspicion pointed to a strong nexus between the Goan Ministers, the drug mafia and the sex racketeers, the media played it very safe by conveniently choosing not to pursue the leads from the investigation.
When a 14-year-old German girl was raped by Rohit Monserrate, the 21-year-old son of Goa Education Minister Atanasio Monserrate who is also a powerful political figure in Goa, and the girl’s mother was repeatedly harassed and their lawyer was grievously injured in order to coerce him to withdraw from the case, the Media didn’t find anything extraordinary in that.
When Taslima Nasreen’s press conference was rudely disrupted and chairs and all sorts of dangerous objects were thrown at her in full glare of the cameras by the “secular” muslim jihadis of Hyderabad lead by the MLAs of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), the Media didnt at all find anything amiss in that.
When Laxmi Oraon, an Adivasi woman was brutally thrashed and paraded naked through the streets of Guwahati, Assam, with the whole police paraphernalia and official state machinery in tow, the Media chose to downplay the episode since, the victim was a hapless adivasi woman from the lower strata of society.
The Media felt that since all the above unsavoury incidents had occured in the states lead by Madam Sonia Antonia Maino’s puppets, it is all perfectly legitimate and absolutely secular and progressive.
Kudos to the Media who are the Real Talibans of India.
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=8098&a...target=”_blank”>http://http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=8098&a...
Nikhil: am sure even ndtv realises that’s its easier to go after Kunte than to go after a wikipedia. the episode has also subconsciously ensured that many bloggers will think twice when writing about NDTV on their blogs..
Personally, I don’t think anything will come out of this episode. NDTV will stick to its stance of removing slander and all the bloggers who are currently going gaga over ‘free speech’ rights will carry on with their lives, just as normal after a month.
Nks: you build your case very well..
Didn't Pradyuman join Bhaskar Group to head their internet division which never really took off?
Even calling someone an idiot in a public medium should not cause an issue. Unless there is deliberate intention to slander someone, _and_ it can be proven thus, I suppose the courts would not find it in their interests to intervene. usually, deliberate intention to slander would arise from several acts, such as: 'distributing advertisements like pamphlets, e-mail spam promoting the slanderous material and it's origin','dharnas, effigy burning, active initiation of press coverage for popularizing the cause, etc..
A personal blog does not fall under a category that can be prosecuted for slander unless it is promoted by the origin. As such, a personal blog is just that. Personal. If a million readers happen to read it, that's voluntary, and no concern of the author.
I could be wrong. But unless I'm terribly lost since the last time I went through a refresher, legal proceedings could be initiated, but would fail to come to a head in a court of law.
Also note: There is absolutely no way to prove conclusively, even in court, that Barkha Dutt is _not_ an idiot. :)
I would like add one more sweeping statement regarding the news reportage on TV. The entire set of new channels are unworthy of calling themselves journalists –
they are melodramatic, like to ask questions for ttitalation, are unwilling to listen, like to be the interrogator, rude and down right dumb. And there is sufficient TV news footage to prove each of these statements.
Worse, the media fraternity doesnt have the guts to show mirror to each other. But are more than willing to be the society's "watchdog". What gives them this belief that they are infallible.
The question I beg to ask is not just pertaining to Kunte vs Barkha Dutt, but the irresponsibility being displayed at large by the media houses especially TV channels. If the governments, politcal parties, corporate houses and citizens are "expected to behave responsibly" so should media that reports about this.