"You Have Acted As A Judge, Jury And Executioner In Breach Of All Journalsitic Ethics": Republic TV Sends Legal Notice To Indian Express On Arnab Goswami Story

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Republic TV news channel sent a legal notice to the Indian Express, in which it asked them to abstain from reporting fabricated and unsubstantiated news against Republic TV in respect of the alleged TRP scam.

The channel firstly opposed a news report issued by the Indian Express on 25th January, where it asserted that Arnab Goswami, Republic TV's Editor-in-Chief bribed ParthoDasgupta, former  BBARC CEO to increase their TRP rankings.

INTRODUCTION

The legal notice which was sent through Phoenix Legal, states that Indian Express' report titled "Arnab Goswami paid me $12,000 and Rs 40 lakh to fix ratings: Partho Dasgupta" is a vexing campaign to deteriorate the esteem of Republic TV and is wilful to further Indian Express' own commercial and corporate interests through lividness.

It also states that the headline of the news report is misleading for all the readers and is squarely deliberate and mischievious.

It is stated that Indian Express knowingly omitted to mention that this statement made by Mr. ParthoDasgupta was extracted from him by the Mumbai Police using force, which means it cannot be admitted in the Court of law.

Section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act was referred to, which states that any confession made to a police-officer shall never be proved as against a person accused. Section 26 was also referred which makes it clear that when confession is made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, then only it is considered valid.

TThe notice also asserts that Mr. Dasgupta filed a Bail application on January 6, 2021 before the Sessions Court, Mumbai in which it is declared that there was no manipulation of TRP by the Republic TV Network.

FURTHER DETAILS

It was also indicated that investigation of the matter is in process and is also pending consideration before the Bombay High Court, and that these prejudiced reports amount to criminal contempt of Court.o:p>

TTherefore, Republic TV has asked for an unconditional public apology from Indian Express and also demanded that it shall issue a corrigendum which clarifies the correct facts.

BACKGROUND

It was claimed by the Mumbai Police that ParthoDasgupta had conspired with another ex-senior BARC official and ArnabGoswami to manipulate the TRP (television rating points) of Republic TV and its Hindi arm.o:p>

He was charged under sections 409 and 420 of the IPC by the Crime Branch. The former deals with criminal breach of trust by a public servant and the latter deals with cheating.

TThe Bombay High Court has taken grasp with a petition filed by Republic TV which challenges the investigation against it.

CONCLUSION

Such publishing of reports and legal notices, really raise the issue of ethics of the journalists and the TV Networks. The viewers also concern themselves with how much they can rely on them for correct information.