New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday, July 29 refused to grant interim relief to TV Today Network, which owns channels India Today and Aaj Tak, in their defamation and copyright infringement suit against independent news media company Newslaundry.
According to Bar and Bench, Justice Asha Menon refused to direct Newslaundry to take down its allegedly infringing videos containing clips of India Today and Aaj Tak.
Justice Menon held that though there may be a prima facie case in favour of the plaintiff, the circumstances are such that no interim injunction can be granted against Newslaundry as there was no balance of convenience in favour of TV Today and no irreparable loss was being caused.
The court added that the matter must be treated as a commercial dispute and discussed under broadcast rights instead of copyright.
TV Today had in October last year filed a defamation suit against Newslaundry in the Delhi high court, alleging that the media watchdog’s use of clips from India Today, Aaj Tak and Good News Today in their shows without permission violated the Copyright Act.
The suit was filed against Newslaundry, its chief executive and founder Abhinandan Sekhri, its directors and several of its journalists and editors, including Manisha Pande, Ayush Tiwari, Atul Chaurasia, and Hridayesh Joshi.
TV Today had asked for directions for the allegedly infringing videos to be taken down and action be taken against the website and its YouTube channel.
India Today had sought Rs 2 crore in damages from Newslaundry for alleged copyright violation and defamation.
Separately, Newslaundry had claimed that its YouTube channel was frozen after India Today Group had reported it multiple times for copyright violation.
As per LiveLaw, TV Today’s interim application sought suspension and termination of Newslaundry’s YouTube channel and their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram handles.
During the hearing on Friday, advocate Hrishikesh Baruah, appearing for TV Today, argued that the respondents have used the plaintiff’s copyright media without offering any valuable commentary or critique in an effort to demean their brand and news channels, Bar and Bench reported. The counsel further said that Newslaundry’s shows were piggybacking on their content.
Senior advocate Saurabh Kripal appearing for Newslaundry argued that expression of an opinion does not amount to defamation and that the cause of action described in the plaint was unclear. He said that the plaint did not specifically depict as to how the alleged videos were defamatory.
Newslaundry argued that edited content was being wrongly shown in court. “We are an organisation with a philosophy where we report and critique the media. They want to criticise everyone and want others to be thick skinned but when we criticise them, they become thin skinned,” the news portal argued.
