Publish other side's views as well: Tips by Madras High Court on good journalism to avoid defamation

Whenever a person voices an opinion against another individual either through the print or electronic media, he or she should exercise caution so as to avoid defamation proceedings, the Madras High Court said on Thursday..Single-judge Justice CV Karthikeyan said that before expressing such opinion, the person should put forth the same to the concerned individual or party who would be directly or indirectly affected by such opinion and obtain his or her point of view as well.Such party's view/ remarks should also be then be put forth through the media along with the opinion being expressed."It is also to be expressed that if ever anybody either through the print media or through electronic media or in any other form seeks to voice out opinion, caution should be exercised and a code should also be maintained that such opinion should be put forth in the first instance to the person who would be either directly or indirectly affected by such opinion expressed, obtain their remarks on the same and then put forward both the opinion and the remarks as an information to be disseminated to the general public and leave it to the general public to form their opinion," the Court said.The observations were made on Thursday while granting interim injunction restraining YouTuber 'Savukku Shankar' from making defamatory statements against real estate company G Square.The Court was hearing a defamation suit filed by G Square against Shankar. The real estate company has sought damages of over ₹1 crores for certain statements that Shankar allegedly made against it on social media.The Court said that Shankar's statements did not seem to be prima facie based on facts."The allegations, prima facie, do not appear to be based on facts and they had not been put to the plaintiff before being levelled in the public domain. Therefore, an interim injunction naturally follows," the High Court said.It also cautioned the general public from making statements against others without exercising due caution.The matter was posted for further hearing on September 29..[Read Order]