The Delhi High Court served an injunction order on Cobrapost‘s sting Operation 136: Part 2 yesterday. In Part 1 of the sting operation, the website purportedly showed how a section of Indian media houses agreed to run a pro-Hindutva campaign in exchange for money. ‘136’ here refers to India’s poor performance on the press freedom index. A total of 16 news organisations were stung including India TV, Dainik Jagran, Hindi Khabar, SAB TV, DNA (Daily News and Analysis), Amar Ujala, Punjab Kesari, ScoopWhoop and Rediff.com.
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ContributeCobrapost had announced the release of Part 2 a few days ago and said the sting would have “some of the biggest names in the Indian media ready to peddle paid news”.
The court stay came after Dainik Bhaskar’s appeal that said the sting was being released with the sole intention to sully its reputation. The court has set the next date of hearing on July 4 and has refrained Cobrapost from releasing the contents of the sting in the public domain. Meanwhile, Cobrapost has stated that it will try and vacate the injunction before 3 pm today so as to carry on with the sting’s release at the Press Club of India.
Update: Cobrapost has decided that it will not be moving the High Court against the injunction today.
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