A civil court in Bengaluru recently passed an interim order restraining the publication of content that was allegedly defamatory to Malayalam news channel Reporter TV..Reporter TV had filed a suit earlier this month, alleging that defamatory content was being published and shared against it on various platforms. It urged the Court to order various defendants to take down such content and to restrain them from publishing any more of such content.On October 25, the civil court granted Reporter TV interim relief by passing temporary injunction order against any defamatory content uploaded against the news channel..The defendants to the suit include Google, Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), X Corp, Manorama News, Asianet News, Mediaone TV, News18 Kerala, Zee Malayalam News, The New Indian Express, Times of India, The Hindu, The News Minute, ETV Bharat, Kerala Vision News 24x7, Malayalam India Today and unknown others (John Doe).The court has restrained the defendants from publishing, circulating, sharing, providing access to, or communicating any such defamatory content. The interim order also calls for de-indexing links with such content and for making URLs with defamatory content non-searchable. The order will operate till the next date of hearing, which is on December 18.All the defendants have also been issued summons in the matter..The court passed the order on finding that Reporter TV, through its counsel, had made out a prima facie case in its favour and that the news channel had a good reputation which could be affected if defamatory content is allowed to continue being available."It is clear that plaintiff has made out a prima-facie case and is having the good reputation and if at all the defendants continued in the act of defamation definitely his reputation will be harmed in the eyes of society at large. The balance of convenience is in favor of the plaintiff and therefore, the court is of the opinion the acts of the defendants are to be restrained by way of ad-interim order of temporary injunction," the order stated.
