A Delhi court has criticized Malayalam news channel 24News for distorting an interview with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, leading to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s now-dismissed defamation case.
Chandrashekhar had accused Tharoor of implying he bribed voters in Thiruvananthapuram ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, the court found no such allegation in Tharoor’s statements and instead pointed out that 24News had selectively presented the interview to create a misleading narrative.
The court highlighted how media outlets manipulate snippets of interviews to craft sensational headlines, with Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Paras Dalal noting that the pursuit of attention-grabbing content often leads to distortion.
“It is noteworthy how interviews and statements can be reinterpreted through selective editing. The full 23-minute video presents a civil exchange, yet a short clip, stripped of context, was framed as breaking news,” the court observed.
It also took issue with the channel’s morning show anchor, who introduced the segment with his own interpretation while omitting key details, never clarifying that Tharoor’s words were part of a much longer conversation.
The court acknowledged that Tharoor had consistently dismissed the claims as baseless in subsequent interviews, leaving it to voters to decide. “The accused merely referenced hearsay but never accused the complainant of bribery,” it concluded.
With the court firmly rejecting the defamation case, the ruling stands as a warning against media sensationalism and selective reporting.