“If journalists are left to face penalties in lakhs of rupees in damages, will it not have a chilling effect on free and fair reporting?” wrote the Mumbai Press Club on X today, asking the Hindu to “not abandon” journalist Rahul Pandita in a 2014 defamation suit.   

The suit allegedly pertains to Pandita’s front-page story for the Hindu on December 13, 2014, which described “failure of command” in a police operation at Chhattisgarh’s Sukma in which reportedly 14 CRPF men were killed in a “Naxal attack”, as per the press club.

Subsequently, inspector-general of police Harpreet Sidhu filed a suit against Pandita and The Hindu. While the latter initially defended Pandita, it eventually reached a compromise, and a Mohali court then ordered that the journalist pay Rs 75 lakh in damages in the defamation suit. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has now stayed the order against the journalist.

On X, the Mumbai press body shared a note titled “Media houses must stand up for their reporters” asking the Hindu to “mount an organisational defence for truthful reporting”. It also shared its June 25 letter to the editor and publisher of The Hindu. 

The press body asked that “isn’t it the duty of a news organisation to defend its team members for stories published after due verification?” and “If journalists are left to face penalties in lakhs of rupees in damages, will it not have a chilling effect on free and fair reporting?”

In the letter to the Hindu, the press club urged the publication to review its policy and asked why had it issued a corrigendum about the story when it initially defended it. It also said that “it is a message to hundreds of journalists that when it comes to the crunch, the news network will not only abandon you, but may even denounce you. What is the future of independent journalism, if media companies don’t stand up for their journalists?”  

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