The Bollywood filmmakers filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court suit was filed against Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari and Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar.
The suit was filed against irresponsible reporting by media houses.
After one month of filing the suit the court ordered the two channels - Republic TV and Times Now to not displaydefamatory on their channels or on social media.
Hindi film industry's biggest names, including Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra, and Farhan Akhtar, came together to take legal action against the 2 media houses.
"Media can't run a parallel trial. You're a broadcaster... show news. There are less news and more opinion," the court told the channels today stressing the point that "things are being pre-judged".
Amid exchange of arguments, the court today recalled the circumstances under which British Royal Princess Diana died in 1997.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher who was hearing the petition said "Bollywood celebrities are entitled to privacy. Look what happened in the case of Princess Diana... she died because she was being chased by the media. You can't just go on like this. The courts are the last ones to want to regulate."
"Even cuss words are being used during live debates. Nobody is stopping from reporting but the language and the manner have to be right," the court further said.
During the hearing, Justice Rajiv Shakdher asked the media houses - AGR Outlier Media Pvt Ltd and Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd - to ensure that no defamatory content is uploaded on social media platforms or displayed on their channels.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher judge at another instance during the hearing said "15 years ago, there was an incident. A teacher in Delhi was accused by a TV channel of exposing children inappropriately. She was almost lynched. But none of that news about her was true. She did not even have the money to file a defamation case against the channel."
"We expect fair reportage but sadly that is not happening. Not just in India but across the world. We used to find Doordarshan stale but now I wish it comes back. The black and white Doordarshan was so much better," he said.
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