The Madras High Court on Wednesday pulled up Dainik Bhaskar for publishing “fake news” of attacks on Hindi-speaking migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.
While granting anticipatory bail to Prasoon Mishra, News Editor of the Hindi Newspaper, the court ordered the publication to issue an unconditional apology before the court and the people of Tamil Nadu, and publish a corrigendum on the first page/home page stating that the news they had published was fake.
The move comes nearly four months after Dainik Bhaskar shared a video on Twitter, which read “Taliban in Tamil Nadu punishing Bihari labourers for speaking Hindi.”
Prasoon Mishra had filed an anticipatory bail plea with the court last week, claiming that the publication had “no intention” to incite fear or animosity between two groups due to language or location.
The high court stated that the media outlet had published “fake news without verifying the fact and veracity.” The court also ordered the publication to furnish a bond of `25,000.
The court also flagged concern about the competition of media and press for TRP, due to which they are in a rush to share news without authenticating facts.
“Media and press need to adopt their professional ethics and take care of public interest instead of concentrating on sensational news alone for promoting their own commercial interest. Such a bounden duty cannot be shirked by them under the guise of freedom of speech,” the court stated.
The fake news was about a migrant worker who died on train tracks in Tirupur. The incident sparked huge protests in the textile town and Bihar. Following the outrage, the incident turned into a political war between the BJP and the RJD-JDU government.
After an investigation, the Tamil Nadu police released CCTV footage showing the man strolling along the tracks and being hit by a train, to prove it wasn’t a case of homicide.
However, several media outlets reported the news as a “heinous attack” on migrant workers, citing Dainik Bhaskar’s report. The reports claimed that at least “12 Hindi-speaking workers were hanged and 15 were murdered.”