Times Now settles civil suit, says it will not air anything defamatory to Bollywood

PTI, Jun 23, 2021, 9:58 AM IST

Source: Times Now

Mumbai: The Producers Guild of India on Tuesday said they have settled their civil suit over alleged “irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks” against the film industry with Times Now.

The channel has agreed to abide by provisions of the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Rules, a joint statement from the Guild and Times Now said.

A plea was filed last year by four film industry bodies and 34 producers l seeking to restrain Republic TV and Times Now from making allegedly defamatory remarks against the Hindi film industry and conducting media trials against its members on various issues following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

The lawsuit by four Bollywood industry associations and thirty-four leading producers, including those owned by Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Karan Johar, Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Rohit Shetty, as also Yash Raj Films and R S Entertainment, had sought that the channels be restrained from interfering with the right to privacy of persons associated with the industry.

The official Twitter handle of Producers Guild of India shared a joint statement with Times Network and wrote that the matter was settled.

“The Plaintiffs and Times Now are pleased to confirm that they have settled the matter, and the application for settlement along with Consent Terms is pending for acceptance before the Hon”ble Delhi High Court.

“As per the Consent Terms agreed, Times Now reaffirms its commitment to abide by the Programme Code under the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the Cable Television Network 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,” the statement read.

The suit had sought a direction to Republic TV, its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and reporter Pradeep Bhandari, Times Now, its editor-in-chief Rahul Shivshankar and group editor Navika Kumar, and unknown defendants as well as social media platforms to refrain from making or publishing allegedly irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood.

“With this matter settled, the Plaintiffs and the Times Group can look forward to building on their historically cordial relationship,” the statement further read.