On 22 January 2020, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw of the Delhi High Court heard arguments by the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) and the Culture Workers Support Trust regarding their impleadment in the defamation suit filed by influential artist, Subodh Gupta seeking removal of Instagram posts and news reports containing anonymous allegations of sexual harassment against him. Read more about the case here. Senior Advocate, Ritin Rai and Advocate, Shreya Munoth appearing for IJU emphasized that news reports cannot be de-indexed without providing journalists an opportunity to defend their reportage. They further submitted there was a distinction between merely republishing defamatory allegations and reporting on them. They also highlighted the harm caused by de-indexing of news reports from Google search engine results by comparing it to removal of a book from the shelves of booksellers.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/indian-journalists-union-defends-right-of-journalists-to-report-on-metoo-allegations/