Television news channel Times Now was made to eat humble pie when it agreed to refrain from airing defamatory content in settlement of a lawsuit, filed by 34 top producers and four film associations, over its coverage of the film industry in the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise. Times Network, which owns the TV channel, issued a joint statement with The Film And Television Producers Guild Of India Ltd. on 22nd June, stating that it would abide by the Programme Code. The lawsuit, filed in the Delhi high court in October last year, had also named Republic TV as one of the defendants.
The joint statement reads: “As per the consent terms agreed, Times Now reaffirms its commitment to abide by the Programme Code under the Cable TV Network Regulation Act, 1994 and the Cable TV Network Regulation Rules, 1994 and undertakes not to publish or air anything that is defamatory to the Plaintiffs (the Hindi film industry) on the Times Now channel.”
Among the 34 production houses which had filed the suit were Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions, Reliance Big Entertainment, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, BSK Network And Entertainment, Cape Of Good Films, Ajay Devgn Ffilms, Excel Entertainment, Film Kraft Productions, Aamir Khan Productions, Salman Khan Films and Red Chillies Entertainment. Besides Guild, the other trade bodies which were the joint plaintiffs were the Cine & TV Artistes’ Association, the Indian Film And TV Producers Council, and the Screenwriters Association. The two news channels had used such derogatory terms as “filth”, “gutter”, “scum” and “druggies” to describe the Hindi film industry and its members during their coverage of Sushant’s suicide.