Drugs reportage: Bollywood personalities file suit against Republic TV, Times Now

As many as 38 Bollywood producers on Monday filed a suit in the Delhi High Court against Republic TV and Times Now over their reportage on the Bollywood drugs case. In the suit, the producers have sought curbs on what they called “irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks being made against the Hindi film industry”.

Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari of Republic TV and Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar of Times Now have been named in the suit for allegedly interfering with the right to privacy of Bollywood film personalities.

The use of words like “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies”, among others, in the reportage has been criticized heavily.

As per some, the suit is against the spirit of free speech. Senior journalist Kanchan Gupta commented,” We’re witnessing increasing attempts to get Judiciary to impose restraints on news TV, largely ungoverned unlike print media, and silence #FreeSpeech that discomfits those unaccustomed to hearing truth being told bluntly. Judicial intervention has consequences for all media.”