A Delhi court on Wednesday acquitted journalist Priya Ramani in the defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar. Ramani had ac...
A Delhi court on Wednesday acquitted journalist Priya Ramani in the defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar. Ramani had accused Akbar of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement in India in 2018. Following the allegations, Akbar resigned from the Union Council of Ministers and filed a defamation case against her.
Most Indian English newspapers dedicated a portion of their frontpages to the verdict, which was hailed as a landmark judgement. The reportage focussed on how the court highlighted that a woman has the right to “put her grievance even after decades” while building on the Vishakha guidelines.
Regional dailies mostly chose to ignore the news or carry it either as single column articles or in the bottom half of the front page. Bengali dailies such as Anandabazar Patrika, Bartaman and Pratidin did not mention the news on their front pages and instead preferred to concentrate on state politics. Southern papers such as Dinakaran, Dinamani and Hindu Tamil too did not have it on their front pages. Gujarati front pages focused on the news of petrol prices crossing Rs 100.
The Indian Express had the verdict as its biggest news. It quoted the court order in its headline that read: “The woman cannot be punished for raising voice against sex abuse”. The article was accompanied with a picture of...
