Update at 6 pm on December 16: In a statement, Outlook said, “Outlook was always willing to provide legal and financial assistance to the journalist to jointly deal with the pending litigation, however, the journalist for reasons best known to her, decided to hire her own advocate to defend herself in the pending litigation. Even today, Outlook is willing to support the journalist in defending herself in the said matter jointly in the event the said journalist is interested in doing so. In fact, the statement published in the said story, that the magazine ‘is not in touch with her’ is false and incorrect as the journalist has of her own reckoning refused to engage or communicate with Outlook.”
Neha Dixit stands by her comments.
On November 18, journalist Neha Dixit tweeted an “advisory” to journalists.
“...please risk your life to publish stories only for editors and publishers who back you and stand by you. The onus of ethics and commitment does not only lie on the reporters,” she tweeted.
8th yr of legal cases but no support.
— Neha Dixit (@nehadixit123) November 18, 2024
This is an advisory to journalists to please risk your life to publish stories only for editors and publishers who back you and stand by you. The onus of ethics and commitment does not only lie on the reporters. pic.twitter.com/AGSxY5rTG2
The context was a series that Dixit wrote eight years ago for Outlook magazine on RSS-affiliated organisations that allegedly violated national and international child protection laws to “traffic 31 young tribal girls from Assam to Punjab and Gujarat to ‘Hinduise’ them”.
In 2016, the year the series was published, a complaint was filed against Dixit, then Outlook editor Krishna Prasad, and Outlook CEO Indranil Roy by SC Koyal, then the assistant solicitor general of India, and BJP spokesperson Bijon Mahajan for promoting enmity and for defamation.
Eight years later, Dixit said she treks to a Guwahati court twice a year to appear in connection with the case.
“This is the eighth year of the defamation case. I appeared before the court but the editor and publisher didn’t show up,” she told Newslaundry. “It is very tiring to travel such a long distance.”
She said the magazine “is not in touch with her”, let alone helping her with legal or travel expenses. She also said the case has been “delayed till February 13” since Prasad and Roy did not appear in court.
Dixit’s lawyer Santanu Barthakur said they plan to approach the high court “with the appeal that the case has no merit and to quash the same”.
In 2022, Roy had told Newslaundry that the organisation “never severed communications with Ms Neha Dixit with respect to the legal case”. “Outlook, in its true traditions, has always stood by its reporters. Any suggestions to the contrary are inaccurate,” he said.
Newslaundry reported at length in 2022 on the ordeal that Dixit is facing. Read about it here.
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