While journalists have the freedom to criticise an individual for his political ideology, they cannot make any unfound personal allegations, the Madras High Court said on Monday while directing Delhi based journalist Abhijit Majumder to “remove” derogatory comments that he had made against social activist and Tamil ideologue late Periyar.Saying that while it was okay for journalists to criticise someone’s political ideology, they cannot make any unfound personal allegations, the Madras High Court Monday directed Delhi based journalist Abhijit Majumder to “remove” derogatory comments that he had made against social activist and Tamil ideologue Periyar in an opinion piece published last year.Justice N Anand Venkatesh said that in today's times, there was “no decency in expressing news and opinions.”The Court was hearing a petition filed by Majumder seeking quashing of a first information report (FIR) registered against him by the Tamil Nadu Police.The Police registered the FIR against Majumder in September last year after he wrote an opinion piece criticising TN minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s alleged call to eradicate Sanatana. In the article, Majumder had made comments against social activist and ideologue Periyar.Majumder had called Periyar “an intellectual thug who did not just marry his own adopted daughter 40 years younger, but reportedly incited local goons to sexually harass his wife to stop her from visiting a temple.”
On Monday, Justice Venkatesh asked Majumder’s counsel what material or research his client relied upon in arriving at such opinion?The counsel said that the said comments were based on other, previously published articles. He, however, added that Majumder was willing to delete the objectionable portions from his article.The Court then directed him to delete such portion and said that one must not think one can get away with mud slinging by simply saying that one had written something merely because others had written the same thing as well.“Why did you make an allegation like that? Having different ideologies is okay. One person can have a certain ideology and another can oppose it. But how can you make these allegations? If you want to criticise a person's politics, ideology, it is all okay. But you cannot make personal allegations,” the Court said.
The Court then directed Majumder to remove the derogatory portion and express regret for publishing the same.It said that it will consider passing orders for quashing the FIR after this and adjourned the matter to January 23.
TAGS: Madras High Court Abhijit Majumder Periyar defamation
