The Delhi High Court has ordered Kerala-based digital outlet Karma News to take down an article it published last year about Cutting South, a 2023 media event organised in Kochi.
In the order issued last week, the high court noted that Karma News published the article in question on July 1, 2024 in defiance of the court’s 2023 directive which barred the portal from publishing any material on the event and its organisers. At the time of publishing this report, the said article was still up on Karma News’ website.
Cutting South was an event organised in Kochi in 2023 by the Kerala Media Academy in partnership with Newslaundry, Confluence Media and The News Minute. After the event, Karma News – which is owned by Galaxy Zoom India Pvt Ltd – ran a campaign accusing them of separatist propaganda, anti-national activities, and being part of a larger terrorist movement.
Newslaundry and Confluence Media then filed a defamation suit against Karma News seeking Rs 2 crore in damages, a mandatory injunction, and an apology. Separately, The News Minute approached the courts over Karma News and others running a “malicious campaign” against the news portal and its editor Dhanya Rajendran.
In July 2023, the high court barred the outlet from publishing any material on Cutting South 2023 and the organisers. Karma News told the court at the time it wouldn’t repeat any of its allegations until further orders; it said it would not “directly or indirectly publish, comment, communicate or issue or any video or article or any other material referring to the dispute in the present suit till the next date of hearing”.
However, in July 2024, Karma News published another piece that accused the event’s organisers of purportedly receiving funds from foreign entities and “dividing the map of India into two parts”. So, the high court last week directed Karma News to take down the article and to file an affidavit of compliance after doing so.
The matter will now be heard in May.
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