ITV

Tag: Salman Khurshid

  • Republic TV & Pushkar’s kin restrained, hearing on 21 Sept

    MUMBAI: The Delhi High Court has asked Republic TV and the kin of late Sunanda Pushkar not to indulge in “name calling” in connection with her death case but said there could be a possibility of some posturing from both sides.

    The court was hearing the Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s plea seeking to restrain journalist-editor Arnab Goswami and his TV channel from alleged misreporting on his wife’s death, PTI reported. Pushkar was found dead in a south Delhi five-star hotel suite on the night of 17 January, 2014, in mysterious circumstances.

    Justice Manmohan made the above observation after lawyers accused each other of not being careful while tweeting about the case as well as about each other.

    The court has now told Tharoor’s lawyers to file their response to the affidavit filed by Goswami and the channel and listed the case for hearing on 21 September. Tharoor had filed Rs 20 million defamation suit against Goswami and his channel.

    While the media house was now careful in how it reported about the case, senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Tharoor, said some Republic TV reporters were not taking the same care while tweeting. Appearing for Republic TV, advocate Malvika Trivedi contended that Tharoor had also made endless tweets against it which, she said, were offensive.

    In response, Khurshid said that his client’s remarks about the media house were harsh and funny, but not defamatory and assured the court that such statements would not be made again. Khurshid said he does not want to gag the media. Investigation was their right, he said, but, he said, they had already held him guilty.

  • Arnab Goswami told to respect Tharoor’s right, Delhi HC hearing on 16 Aug

    NEW DELHI: Even as the Delhi High Court did not restrain Republic TV in its investigation into the death of Sunanda Pushkar, it asked the channel head Arnab Goswami to respect Shashi Tharoor’s right to silence on the issue. A spokesperson meanwhile said it was “another big victory for Republic TV” as Tharoor failed to ‘gag’ the channel.

    The court asked Goswami and his channel to file its reply on the Congress MP’s plea to refrain from “misreporting” his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death, and asked them to respect his “right to silence”.

    The court was hearing an application moved by Tharoor in his pending Rs-20 million defamation suit against Goswami and the channel for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him while airing news relating to the death of his wife. Tharoor alleged that they continued to engage in “defaming and maligning” him despite an assurance given in the court on 29 May by their counsel. The matter has now been fixed for 16 August 2017.

    Tharoor’s counsel Salman Khurshid submitted that the court must direct Goswami and the channel to not mention the expression “murder of Sunanda Pushkar”, as it is yet to be established by a competent court that her death was “murder”, to ensure the trial was not prejudiced.

    Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, appearing for Goswami and the channel, said they have only placed the actual evidence and the police report while broadcasting the news. “We have not called him a murderer in any of the news broadcasts on the channel,” he said. The judge asked the counsel not to use names and said “they will have to abide by that.”

    Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five-star hotel in south Delhi on the night of 17 January, 2014. The matter is under investigation. 

    Also Read:

    Shashi Tharoor files defamation case against Arnab Goswami’s Republic

    Ex-employees Arnab & Sridevi stole ‘material’, Bennett files police complaint

    Delhi HC notice to Arnab Goswami on ‘theft’ suit by Times group 

    Of Arnab’s Republic, nationalism, need for opinionated media & ‘outdated’ BBC

  • TDSAT rejects Star India’s applications against Indusind, Goldstar

    TDSAT rejects Star India’s applications against Indusind, Goldstar

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has rejected four miscellaneous applications relating to five cases against it to the effect that an endorsement made by the petitioners at the end of agreements left ‘the door open to the petitioners to walk out of any clause.’

     

    Four petitions had been filed by Indusind Media and one by Goldstar Noida Network Pvt. Ltd., U.P.

     

    Star India Pvt. Ltd. Counsel Salman Khurshid said that while executing the interconnect agreement in pursuance of the order passed by the Tribunal, the petitioners made the endorsement that the execution on its behalf was “without prejudice.” He said the whole agreement was put in a state of uncertainty because of the endorsement at the bottom of the agreement.

     

    However, counsel Vandana Jaisingh for the petitioners stated that the endorsement “without prejudice” relates only to the 15 per cent increase in the subscription fee and to no other clause in the agreement, including the clauses relating to the additional areas.

     

    It was made clear in the order by which the two sides were directed to execute the agreement that the 15 per cent increase in subscription fee will be subject to the result of a petition pending before the Tribunal. In any view, therefore, the endorsement “without prejudice” is redundant, she said.

     

    TDSAT chairman Aftab Alam and member Kuldip Singh said in the order that no further directions need be passed in these applications in view of the clarification made by Jaisingh.

  • DD News stirs a storm by telecasting live RSS annual day event

    DD News stirs a storm by telecasting live RSS annual day event

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has come under fire from various political parties and social media activists for telecasing live-for the first time – the speech by Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to the organisation’s cadres.

    The RSS is the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party; it describes itself as a cultural outfit devoted to the betterment of the nation and upholding Hindu values.

     

    Almost all the opposition parties, which describe the RSS as anti-secular, said the telecast of the speech amounts to misuse of state television by the government.

    However, DD News Director Archana Dutta justified the telecast, saying: “It is a news event for us and that is why we covered it like any other newsworthy event.” However, this event has never been covered live, and in previous years including the years when Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee was Prime Minister, it was reported on by a stringer and not by a DD correspondent.”

     “DD is run by public money. So how is government using it to broadcast the RSS chief’s speech?” said Rashid Alvi of the Congress. “The RSS uses the occasion to propagate its Hindutva ideology,” said the CPI (M) declaring Doordarshan “has no business” in broadcasting the speech.

    The BJP’s Shaina NC defended the broadcast, stating, “I am glad that this speech has been highlighted and people realise that if there is one cadre in the country today that has genuinely contributed to patriotism and nation-building, it is the RSS.”

    The annual Vijaya Dashami or Dussehra speech by the RSS chief has never been telecast before by Doordarshan. The address articulates the organisation’s vision and agenda for its 4.5 million volunteers, who played an invaluable role in the electoral victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May, who was an RSS volunteer for many years before joining the BJP.

    Congress leader Salman Khurshid said that the decision was unacceptable, adding that the Congress refused to accept the RSS as ‘above board’ in the national discourse of India. “What they (the RSS) want and what they believe in is not in tune with the values of this country,” he said in comments to the media.

     

    The CPI-M also said it was an instance of the “public broadcaster being misused by the Modi government.”

     

    Prominent historian Ramachandra Guha called the decision a “dangerous misuse of the state machinery”, a tweet that has earned him an editorial in Niti Central, titled Ramachandra Guha’s hypocrisy on Doordarshan.

     

    The decision has also sparked a massive debate on Twitter with those for and against it clashing on the social network. Questions are being asked whether DD will also air speeches by the Chief of the Golden Temple, VC of Darul Uloom or the Archbishop of Sacred Heart Cathedral.