Court grants temporary injunction on publishing or telecasting defamatory news against six ministers
Bengaluru, Mar 6: A city court on Saturday issued a temporary injunction against media organisations from telecasting or publishing of any defamatory and unverified news items against six Karnataka ministers.
The ministers in the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa- led cabinet had moved the court on Friday seeking injunction.
Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge D S Vijaya Kumar in the order said in his opinion it is necessary to injunct telecasting or publishing of any unverified news items against the plaintiffs/applicants.
"Therefore, till the next date of hearing, defendants/opponents are hereby restrained by an Interim-Order of temporary injunction..."
They are restrained from broadcasting, telecasting or publishing or letting in circulation or posting or accommodating or transmitting or circulating any defamatory news items or showing footages and pictures referring to the plaintiffs in relation to alleged CDs, the court ordered.
They are also restrained from committing any act or intentional omission which thereby causes character assassination of the plaintiffs on the basis of the unverified material, it said.
The six ministers who approached the court are Labour Minister Shivaram Hebbar, Agriculture Minister B C Patil, Cooperation Minister S T Somashekar, Health Minister K Sudhakar, Youth Empowerment and Sports Minister K C Narayana Gowda and Urban Development Minister Bhyrathi Basavaraj.
The six had instituted the suit against 68 defendants, mostly media organisations, for the relief of permanent injunction.
The six ministers are among the 17 MLAs who had rebelled against the then Congress-JD(S) coalition government, leading to its fall in July 2019 and paving way for the BJP to come to power.
Disqualified from their respective parties- Congress and JDS, the MLAs had subsequently joined the BJP, contested bypolls in December 2019 on the saffron party tickets and were made ministers after winning the polls.
Ramesh Jarkiholi, who recently resigned as a minister amid allegations of sexual harassment after the emergence of a sleaze CD, had also defected to the BJP along with 16 MLAs and had become a minister.
The ministers earlier today had said their moving the court was a precautionary measure amid a "big political conspiracy" against them.
They also indicated that more ministers may take similar steps.
Health Minister Sudhakar alleged there seems to be a big political conspiracy to defame them by misusing the media, and they have approached court to prevent this hit-and-run smear campaign.
Cooperation Minister S T Somashekar said "we have come to know from our old friends in the assembly about the conspiracy to target us with an intent to defame and make us resign."
"There is a conspiracy to target during the assembly session with an intent to defame us, so as a precautionary measure we have approached the court, six of us have gone, another six may also go, totally 15-16 of us, who have come to (BJP) as there is apprehension about attempt to defame us.
So we have sought court protection," he told reporters.
He claimed they will get to know in two to three days who is behind it and will make it public.
Agriculture Minister B C Patil pointed out that he has come up in politics without any godfather and some people were not able to digest it.
"With apprehensions about an attempt to defame us as part of political conspiracy by some conspirators, we have approached the court as precautionary measure," he said in a tweet.
Minister Byrathi Basavaraj said they have approached court as there is a conspiracy being hatched against them.
"We have not done anything wrong."
Earlier in the day, state Home minister Basavaraj Bommai said few ministers have sought protection from the court anticipating about attempts to defame them or interfere in their personal life and thereby create political unrest in the state.
"After Ramesh Jarkiholi issue, lot of speculations, suspicion and conspiracies, talks of honey trap and other things are going on and it has been discussed in the media too.So there are apprehensions about attempts to defame certain other ministers and legislators," he told reporters.
"Based on the complaint in the Ramesh Jarkiholi case investigation is going on. However, information that the complainant had to share and statement that the woman (in the video) has to give, has not happened yet."
"So there is suspicion of a conspiracy, that's the reason some (Ministers) are seeking protection by law," he said, adding that police will also investigate from all angles.
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Trump sues BBC for USD 10 billion, alleges defamation over edited Jan 6 speech
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking USD 10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.
It accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump's speech on January 6, 2021” in order to ”intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks USD 5 billion in damages for defamation and USD 5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The broadcaster apologised last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC's top executive and its head of news.
The speech took place before some of Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”
“They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn't say, and they're beautiful words that I said, right?" the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. "They're beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn't say that, but they used terrible words.”
The president's lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.
Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the US, given that the documentary was not shown in the country.
The lawsuit alleges that people in the US can watch the BBC's original content, including the “Panorama” series, which includes the documentary, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox or a virtual private network service.
The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds (USD 230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
