On March 13, 2013, Greater Kashmir – a Srinagar-based newspaper published an article claiming that Times Now had allegedly reported incorrect news of the Bemina attack which had occurred on the same day. According to the Greater Kashmir article, Times Now had carried a ticker on the channel saying that 5 school-children had been killed in the attack. The article published by Greater Kashmir also carried a screenshot of the alleged ticker. Times Now has responded by sending a legal notice to Greater Kashmir which also states that the published screenshot is doctored.

The news clips in question are in reference to the fidayeen attack which took place on March 14, 2013 in Bemina, Srinagar and resulted in the death of five CRPF men. The attack took place near the Police Public School, which was shut at the time, and the news was immediately splashed across news channels across the country.

We all know that news travels fast nowadays. Thanks to new media and social media, which seem to be beating most news outlets to breaking news before they manage to. Which might explain the skirmish that followed. Twitter was suddenly busy with tweets about how irresponsibly Times Now had reported the news and that the channel had supposedly said that the shooting took place at a school.

The Twitter feed of Times Now though, carried an accurate tweet on the incident clearly stating that the shooting had taken place “near a public school” in Bemina. There were no tweets posted by Times Now on how many people or who (soldiers/schoolchildren) had been killed in the attack.

Greater Kashmir also reported that Srinagar Police Public School and “the officiating Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Range), Abdul Gani Mir, addressed media-persons quickly near the encounter site and categorically stated that the Police Public School—near which the incident took place—was ‘shut and no school children were injured in the attack’”.

This was followed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police registering a case against Times Now for misreporting facts. As reported in Greater Kashmir, “An FIR no. 52 under section 505 RPC has been registered in police station Parimpora against the channel. ‘We have registered a case against Times Now news channel in police station Parimpora,’ Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Srinagar, Syed Aashiq Hussain Bukhari”. Despite calling the SSP repeatedly, we were unable to speak with him.

Times Now in return served a “cease and desist” notice to Greater Kashmir. Which the newspaper replicated on March 18, which is how we found out about the notice. To quote from the news report which Greater Kashmir published – “In its notice to GK, Times Global Broadcasting Company Limited – owners of the Times Now news channel – have claimed that the story titled “Delhi-based news channel jumps the gun” carried by this newspaper on March 14 was, what it terms factually incorrect and misleading. We take strong objection to the article published by you as it is ‘factually incorrect and misleading, since it is based on a doctored screen grab of our Channel covering the incident (Bemina Fidayeen attack) and wrongly replacing our news caption ‘5 CRPF Jawans Killed’ with the false caption ‘5 school children killed’. The article has been published without verifying the true facts of the issue and is creating a false impression amongst the general public,” the notice reads. It further reads: ‘As a publisher of the newspaper and a responsible media platform, it was your bounden duty to confirm the facts with us before publishing the article. The article is a clear indication of prejudicial judgment and biased reporting on your part. We state that by virtue of your actions, you have caused immense prejudice and harm to us and our business, tarnishing our goodwill, image and reputation including that of our company and channel.’

The notice asks GK to ‘desist from showing the said article on website within 24 hours on receipt of the notice as well as display an apology and corrigendum in the newspaper. Further, you are directed to run the apology and corrigendum for a period of 14 days on the homepage of your website…Needless to say, that in the event you fail to comply with the foregoing, we shall be constrained to take appropriate action against you, entirely at your risk, as to the costs and consequences thereof, which you may please note.”

When we spoke to Hector Kenneth, Editor-News, Times Now we asked him the following questions:

1. When did you find out about Great Kashmir carrying a doctored clip of your news item?

Hector: We don’t get the newspaper in Mumbai, our correspondent alerted us to the piece on the website. 

2. Is it after the J&K Police filed a case against you for misrepresentation of facts?

Hector: No, not after FIR. 

3. Have you got any response from GK?

Hector: No response yet. 

4. You had said in your notice that in the event they failed to comply, you would be constrained to take appropriate action.

Hector: Yes, but there’s a specified period of time that we will wait for before legal action is taken. 

5. Any idea how long that is?

Hector: Well, any editorial questions I can answer, but you will have to ask the legal matters to someone else. 

We also contacted Greater Kashmir’s online editor, Javaid Malik who had this to say:

“One of our reporters who tracks news channels noticed the news. And we immediately published the news report. We did in fact try and contact Times Now and called their board lines. We were simply transferred from one line to the other. Even the police have filed an FIR and it is based on the footage that they have from the channel – not on our news report. We are one of the leading newspapers here and don’t believe in irresponsible journalism and this incorrect news by Times Now created panic in the region. And I don’t think there is any need to tender an apology. If Times Now wants to take this forward legally, we are ready for a fight.”

And who doesn’t love a fight? Usually though, it’s between political parties. This time around the fight is between media organisations. The good thing is that in the absence of a regulatory body, calling each other out on incorrect news reporting and baseless allegations will ensure that media organisations exercise more caution and responsibility than usual.