The Delhi High Court has ordered the removal of YouTube videos and other online articles claiming that The News Minute editor-in-chief Dhanya Rajendran, along with a host of other independent digital news publications, are “agents” of billionaire George Soros.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has for long alleged that Soros, a Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist, has “designs to weaken Indian democracy”.
Justice Vikas Mahajan passed the interim injunction on July 15 in favour of Rajendran as part of a defamation suit she had filed. The order was made available to the public on Monday.
The defamatory content was posted by news channels The Karma News and Janam TV, and newspaper Janambhumi, in connection with “Cutting South”, a media festival organised in Kochi in March 2023 by the Kerala Media Academy, in association with The News Minute, Newslaundry and Confluence Media.
The phrase “Cutting South” was a wordplay on the terms “Cutting Chai” and “Cutting Edge”, according to Rajendran’s defamation suit.
The defendants, however, insinuated that Rajendran’s use of the phrase was an attempt to stoke social unrest in India at Soros’ behest. They claimed that Rajendran and The News Minute were acting as “conduits of foreign money to cause disruption in India”.
They also alleged that central agencies were privy to information regarding Rajendran’s “anti-national activities” and claimed that the media festival sought to “cut” and “divide” South India.
The publications were ordered to takedown or block the defamatory content within 10 days.
Rajendran’s counsel told the court that The Karma News and Janam TV have more than one million subscribers on their YouTube channel and that their content garners hundreds of millions of views.
In the order, Mahajan said that he was of the prima facie view that the allegations “are not based on any credible and reliable sources for making out a case that the said allegations are true and based on facts”.
The claims “do not seem to be premised on a public record document such as any criminal case registered or pending” against Rajendran, the court observed.
Mahajan held that the allegations were “defamatory and libellous”, made in a “reckless manner”, without regard for the truth and with intent to injure the reputation of Rajendran and Digipub, Bar and Bench reported.
The Digipub News India Foundation is an association of independent news organisations and journalists, of which Rajendran is the chairperson.
On Monday, Rajendran said that the court order was a “big relief”.
“And don’t be mistaken, we will fight each time,” she said.
The court will hear the matter next in October.
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