A legal wrangle has broken out involving two media outlets, one is India’s biggest media house, and the other a respected digital platform. The digital platform, The Print, had put out a story on March 23 which said that transmission of Covid-19 through newspapers and currency notes was “theoretically possible, although it was most unlikely.” This was in response to widespread fears and rumours that newspapers could transmit the virus through the paper or from vendors which led to many housing societies banning newspaper vendors. In response, the Times of India Group has served a legal notice on ThePrint. It may be recalled that newspaper vendors in Mumbai had stopped delivery of newspapers (Mumbai is the Times of India’s biggest market) because of such actions, and will only resume on April 1, after much negotiation between publishers and vendor’s associations
The Times Group’s legal notice demands that the report be pulled down from ThePrint website as well as social media platforms, claiming it “disparages newspapers and their operations with malicious intention” and also threatens civil or criminal proceedings if the demands are not complied with. The notice goes on to say that the claims made in the report are “absolutely without basis and without appropriate findings by any health or statutory authority”. It adds that ThePrint, through a “doctored” view of the situation, has acted with knowledge “to make wrongful gains and to cause unjustifiable loss to others”. It has also taken objection to the fact that it wasn’t approached for its views before the article was published, adding: ”You are a competitor to us and all newspaper organisations, and your actions are anti-competitive in nature. At the time of abundant misinformation and cluttered internet space, you have tried to hurt your true competitors in an exercise of unfair trade practice to hurt your competition under a deep conspiracy, for which you are jointly and severally liable.”
The Print countered, saying “Our report is a health and science-focused piece on how this new virus, about which so little is known around the world, behaves on paper and if it transmits through paper. The report quotes experts and studies that say while in theory the coronavirus can survive and be transmitted through paper products, it is most unlikely. If anything, the report is reassuring in anxious times. The report is important and necessary considering the mysterious nature of the coronavirus and the largescale fears and misconceptions about it among people. It is a very important reader service.”
The Print’s response also alludes to the fact that it is pleased to be acknowledged as a “competitor” to the media behemoth.
-India Legal Bureau