A Delhi court recently ordered OpIndia to remove two allegedly defamatory articles published on its website about journalist Swati Chaturvedi.
District Judge Meenu Kaushik of the Patiala House Court passed an interim order directing the removal of articles titled ‘Swati Chaturvedi may be delusional-Sources’ and ‘The Wire and its Star Journalist peddles another absurd lie about the RSS, and it is not for the first time’, after Chaturvedi filed a defamation case.
The Court also restrained OpIndia from publishing any defamatory articles against Chaturvedi till her defamation suit is decided.
Judge Kaushik ruled that Chaturvedi will suffer irreparable loss and injury if OpIndia articles continue to stay in the public domain as it can damage her reputation.
“Thus, defendants are directed to block/remove the impugned articles dated 02.06.2018 and 08.05.2019 from their website namely www.opindia.com during the pendency of the suit/till further orders. Defendants are further directed to not to publish any defamatory article qua the plaintiff on their website during the pendency of the suit,” the Court ordered.
The dispute centres on two articles published in 2018 and 2019 that allegedly described Chaturvedi as “delusional”, accused her of “blatant lies and fabrications” and linked her to “extortion rackets”. Chaturvedi argued that the articles damaged her standing as a journalist and public commentator by falsely portraying her as associated with propaganda and misinformation.
OpIndia opposed the plea, arguing that the articles were protected under freedom of speech and constituted fair comment based on information already available in the public domain. It also contended that references to Chaturvedi’s association with The Wire could not be considered defamatory, as she had herself contributed to the publication.
After considering the case, the Court noted that OpIndia had failed to establish that some of the serious allegations made in the articles were supported by the source material placed on record.
Therefore, the Court passed the injunction order.
[Read Order]