Delhi court asks Bloomberg to remove ‘defamatory’ article on ‘accounting issues’ at Zee

A Delhi court has asked news outlet Bloomberg to remove an article about alleged accounting issues at Zee Entertainment Enterprises within a week in a defamation case filed by the latter, Livelaw reported. 

Additional district judge at Saket Court Harjyot Singh Bhalla passed the takedown order, saying that the contents of the article titled “India regulator uncovers $ 241 million accounting issue at Zee”, published on February 21, were “per se defamatory”.  

In its complaint, Zee had alleged that the article was published with an intention to “malign and defame”, and “speculated” the contents as truth, resulting in a plunge in its stock price by 15 percent. 

Zee accused Bloomberg Television Production Services India of publishing the report alleging illegal fund diversion “without any basis”, and said the report’s authors and researchers had previously also published reports against it.

The court said Zee had made out a prima facie case for passing ad interim ex-parte orders of injunction, and that otherwise an “irreparable loss and injury” may be caused to the company.

The Delhi court also restrained Bloomberg from posting, circulating or publishing the article on any platform till the next hearing on March 26.

At the time of publishing, the report in question is still uploaded on the Bloomberg website.

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