The Delhi High Court on Friday ruled that digital media platform Newslaundry acted with “malicious intent” in its coverage of TV Today Network, adding that its tone reflected intolerance rather than fair criticism..A Division Bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla said that Newslaundry repeatedly targeted TV Today and its journalists with disparaging commentary that went beyond the scope of fair critique. The Court noted that Newslaundry not only criticised TV Today’s editorial work but also commented negatively on the death of one of its anchors. “Such conduct demonstrates a clear intent to harm the Plaintiff’s reputation and falls far beyond the realm of legitimate criticism,” the Court observed. . It underscored that statements such as “shit playing”, “shit reporters”, “shit show”, “high on weed or opium”, and “your punctuation is as bad as your journalism" clearly do not qualify as socially beneficial content“These remarks, rather than contributing to public discourse, serve to disparage and insult the Plaintiff and its journalist,” the Division Bench said. It also noted that Newslaundry had awarded to itself the title of “highest standard of journalism” but such self-characterisation cannot serve as a shield for disparaging speech. “In the name of being “correct” and “independent”, the Defendants have, at times, replaced substantive debate with shaming, which does not benefit public discourse or social dialogue,” the Court said. .The Bench made these observations as it partly allowed an appeal filed by TV Today and passed an interim order directing the removal of Newslaundry content that was disparaging.The appeals before the Division Bench had challenged an order of a single-judge Bench in a case filed by TV Today alleging copyright infringement, defamation and disparagement by Newslaundry. .Notably, while hearing the arguments in the case in January 2025, the Division Bench had taken strong exception to Newslaundry's Manisha Pande using the word "shit" in one of the videos about TV Today. The Court warned that it may make observations and pass an order that could damage Pande’s career. However, the next day, the Bench clarified that it had no intention to act against Pande. "She may be a good journalist. This may be an aberration also. At that point, that was our gut reaction...You can tell the journalist concerned that she need not be worried about this," the Court had said at the time..Advocates Hrishikesh Baruah, Kumar Kshitij, Utkarsh Dwivedi, Pragya Agarwal, Yashaswy Ghosh and Nishtha Sachan appeared for TV Today. Newslaundry was represented by Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao as well as advocates Bani Dikshit and Uddhav Khanna..[Read Judgement]
