New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday (March 20) passed an interim judgement ordering news platform Newslaundry to take down certain ‘disparaging’ content about the TV Today group and its channels – Aaj Tak and India Today, Bar and Bench reported.A division bench of Justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla was hearing two cross appeals filed by TV Today and Newslaundry.The material that the Delhi high court has ordered to be taken down includes those in which Newslaundry referred to certain TV Today content using the remarks “shit”, a “shit show”, “high on weed or opium” and “your punctuation is as bad as your journalism”.“We are in agreement with the learned single judge’s finding that a prima facie case of commercial disparagement has been made out. The statements identified in the impugned order [of the single judge] are clearly without any independent standard and are biased and therefore constituted disparagement under the applicable legal principles,” the high court ruled, as quoted by Bar and Bench, adding that their continued availability online would damage TV Today’s reputation.“Such harm cannot be compensated by monetary relief or any other relief. Therefore, interim protection is warranted … Any refusal of interim protection at this stage will cause great prejudice to the plaintiff [TV Today],” the bench said.The bench allowed TV Today’s appeal in part and ordered Newslaundry to remove the remarks or statements from social media platforms and its website.The case dates back to October 2021, when the TV Today group had filed a defamation and copyright infringement suit, alleging disparagement of its copyrighted work by Newslaundry.In July 2022, a single-judge bench of the high court had held that prima facie, the case was in favour of the TV Today group. Both news organisations then filed appeals against each other.TV Today had alleged that Newslaundry‘s videos and articles tarnished its reputation by making “false, malicious and derogatory” statements about its channels, anchors and management.Newslaundry argued that the material in question was criticism and satire protected as free speech.‘Will explore legal options,’ says NewslaundrySpeaking to The Wire, Newslaundry co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri said: “We will explore all legal options including appealing this order. This has profound implications on freedom of speech. Not just for us but for everyone. News as an institution reports and comments on everyone.”“Judiciary, politicians and political parties, industrialists and corporations, film stars and cinema – but yet legacy media, media owners and anchors – expect that they are above all this and cannot be critiqued or commented upon? Whether one agrees with the style (satire, parody, humour or straight up commentary) is an aesthetic call, but to restrict it on law sets a very dangerous precedent.“The blatant and vile communal messaging and propaganda – political and corporate, that is presented as news cannot be given a free pass. And that applies to us too. It has to have space in public discourse. To suggest that news itself cannot be subject to critique or commentary should be deeply troubling, especially when a lot of propaganda, bordering on hate speech at times, is shamelessly aired by some sections of legacy media. Questioning that practice cannot be gagged in a democracy,” he said.During January’s hearing, the high court had orally remarked that TV Today was being “over sensitive” to Newslaundry‘s criticism and that only one of the 75 videos impugned seemed to be objectionable.However, the court had also taken strong exception to Newslaundry‘s managing editor Manisha Pande for using words like “shit”.