Dhanya Rajendran, Shivani Kava
What do Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajinikanth’s wife Latha Rajinikanth and a devotee of the famous Murugha mutt in Chitradurga have in common?
All of them secured gag orders against the media from courts in Bengaluru without giving journalists a chance to respond. Such orders, which are called ex-parte injunctions, are a growing trend in Bengaluru courts.
Ex-parte injunctions are stay orders given without hearing the other side, a one-sided gag. It would not be an exaggeration to say that a majority of these orders were passed in a jiffy. TNM has gone through court records of last ten years and found that there are more than 600 suits registered against media houses in Bengaluru courts. One legacy media organisation for example has zero suits against it in Chennai courts in the last three years, but has 199 in Bengaluru. Another legacy newspaper has 143 ex-parte injunction orders against it. This investigation delves into the trend set by a BJP politician, the absurd cases and how some ex-parte injunctions have ensured that even common people seeking justice through the media had to stop.
This story was originally published in thenewsminute.com. Read the full story here .