Kerala High Court quashes defamation case against Asianet, Kairali TV for reports against Congress MP

The Kerala High Court recently quashed a criminal case filed by Congress leader KC Venugopal against two Malayalam news channels for reports telecast in 2016 on an allegedly defamatory sexual assault claim by a woman, contained in a letter aired by the media outlets [Malayalam Communications Limited & Ors v KC Venugopal & anr and connected case].

Justice PV Kunhikrishnan noted that such a claim had been made by the woman in a press conference as well, which meant that the allegation was already in the public domain.

Therefore, the media's coverage of such a statement cannot be viewed as defamatory unless malice was proved, the Court said.

The Court concluded that in this case, Venugopal had failed to establish that the media outlets acted with malice. Therefore, the Court quashed the defamation case filed against Kairali, Asianet and its employees.

"I am of the considered opinion that the petitioners cannot be blamed by the complainant. The media is only doing their duty. Except for the bold statement in the complaint that there is collusion between the media and the 7th accused, there is absolutely no material produced by the complainant to prove the same. When no malice or bias, much less mens rea can be attributed on the part of the petitioners in telecasting a news item, the prosecution for the defamation initiated is liable to be prematurely terminated for want of mens rea.," the Court held.

KC Venugopal, who is a Congress Member of Parliament (MP), had filed the criminal case against Kairali TV, Asianet and its journalists for allegedly defaming him by airing a letter containing allegations of sexual assault made by a woman.

The letter, which was first made public in 2016, claimed that Venugopal had sexually assaulted the woman at a State minister's residence.

Venugopal alleged that this 'fabricated' letter was aired as part of a conspiracy to defame him. He pointed out that the woman - who also faces several charges after her implication in the solar scam case - had earlier claimed in 2015 that while she knew him, he has never assaulted her.

After Venugopal sued the woman, Asianet and Kairali for defamation, the media outlets and their journalists approached the High Court to quash the proceedings pending before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court.

The High Court found no evidence to suggest a conspiracy between the media outlets and the woman or any concrete proof of malicious intent in airing the allegations. .

It referred to a previous ruling in Prakash and Another v Vandana and Another in which the High Court had held that when content is in the public domain, media coverage does not automatically amount to defamation.

"The media only published the statements given by the 7th accused in a press conference. It cannot be said that the same amounts to defamation and media people should be prosecuted for the same. Therefore, for that simple reason, the prosecution against the petitioners is to be set aside," the Court proceeded to hold..

The Court opined that Venugopal's focus on the media outlets overlooked the woman's role in making the original allegations and that he also failed to specify the exact words in the media coverage that were defamatory.

While quashing the defamation case against the media outlets, the Court clarified that Venugopal could still pursue his defamation case against the woman who made the allegations.

"I make it clear that the complainant is free to proceed against the 7th accused (woman who made the allegation) and the trial court will consider the case against the 7th accused untrammeled by any observation in this order," the High Court said.

Kairali TV News was represented by advocates PM Rafiq, Ajeesh K Sasi, C Jayakiran, Mitha Sudhindran, M Revikrishnan, VC Sarath, and Vipin Narayan.

Asianet News was represented by advocates VV Nandagopal Nambiar.

Senior Counsel Sreekumar and P Martin Jose appeared for KC Venugopal.

Senior Public Prosecutor Renjith TR and Public Prosecutor Sangeetharaj NR appeared for the State.

[Read Order]