The Delhi High Court has upheld the trial court order directing Bloomberg to take down a report alleging that the Securities and Exchange Board of India had found irregularities to the tune of 241 million US dollars at Zee Entertainment, Bar and Bench reported.
The court has reportedly granted three days’ time to Bloomberg to comply with the directions.
Earlier this month, the high court had reserved its judgment on the pleas filed by Bloomberg against the trial court order. Bloomberg had told the court that the order was without reason and without a prima facie case.
Headlined ‘India regulator uncovers $241 million accounting issue at Zee’, the Bloomberg report was published on February 21 this year.
Zee had sued Bloomberg and its journalists Anto Antony, Saikat Das and Preeti Singh. The company claimed that the report contained false and misleading information about the company’s corporate governance and business operations. It alleged that the article was published with malicious intent and resulted in a 15 percent drop in the company’s share price, causing significant financial losses to investors.
“The article by Bloomberg, incorrectly published that Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has found a $241 million accounting issue at the Company; whereas there is no such order from the mentioned regulator. Despite the Company firmly refuting the same, the article incorrectly published financial irregularities in Zee, without the basis of any order from the regulator,” Zee said in a statement.
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