Tender unconditional apology to people of Tamil Nadu: Madras High Court to Dainik Bhaskar for fake news on migrant worker attacks

The Madras High Court granted anticipatory bail to Prasoon Mishra, Digital Editor of the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, on the condition that the paper publishes a corrigendum on the front page of all its publications declaring that its article claiming that migrant workers from Bihar were facing violence in Tamil Nadu was "fake" news..In an order passed on June 27, Justice AD Jagadish Chandira also directed that the publication must tender an "unconditional apology" to the Court and to the "people of Tamil Nadu."The Court further directed Mishra to execute a bond of ₹25,000 and to report to the Avadi police station daily for a week."...it is painful to note that the petitioner, without verifying or exercising due diligence to find out the veracity of the news and without understanding the sensitivity, merely in order to sensitize the public, had published a fake news. This Court strongly deprecates the act of the petitioner in publishing such a sensitive news, without verifying the correctness of the same. However, taking into consideration the unconditional apology rendered by the petitioner and the undertaking made on his behalf that he would publish a Corrigendum in the homepage itself that the news published by him is a fake one and that he would be more vigilant not to indulge into any such activities in future, this Court is inclined to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner with certain conditions,” the order stated..During the hearing, Mishra had told the Court that the news story had not been published with an intention to create panic in Tamil Nadu, or to create enmity between communities in the State. He had also offered an unconditional apology to the Court.The Tamil Nadu government had opposed Mishra's plea for anticipatory bail, and argued that the said news story was incorrect and had resulted in much panic across the State. .In March this year, The Tamil Nadu police had filed a case against Dainik Bhaskar and two others for allegedly spreading misinformation about attacks against migrant workers in the State.On March 2, Dainik Bhaskar had published a news story claiming that 15 Bihari migrant workers in Tamil Nadu had claimed to have received death threats. The story further claimed that the migrant workers had been facing "Taliban-like" attacks in Tamil Nadu..Senior Advocate B Kumar appeared for the petitioner.Government Advocate NS Suganthan appeared for the State..[Read Order]