One more for Arnab as Hansa Research group has filed a suit on Arnab Goswami and ARG outlier which runs Republic TV.
The suit filed with the civil court seeks permanent injunction and restrain the channel from broadcasting or referring to its ‘internal documents’ as ‘Hansa Report’ in stories related to the alleged TRP scandal.
“Reference to the said document as ‘Hansa report’ by Goswami in his broadcast on Republic TV is causing tremendous damage to the reputation of the plaintiff,” states the report.
In its plea, Hansa also argued that the report that was sent to BARC and had detailed facts of the case was only an internal draft.
“This document was not shared by Hansa with anybody except the vigilance team of BARC so that proper police complaint could be formulated. It was only a draft and not even approved by the CEO of Hansa,” the plea said.
The TRP scam as observed by the Mumbai Police, involves bribing homeowners whose TV viewing is monitored to ensure that certain channels get higher ratings. The ratings help get advertiser preferences while placing commercials. This is a Multi- Crore scam according to the police.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said at a press briefing that they have busted a racket that has been manipulating the Television Rating Points (TRP)
Top industry officials feel that the fact that Goswami could get such a confidential report goes on to show his reach goes deep into BARC and Hansa. The fact that he is so embeded and has means to manipulate rating. The report is not final hence entertaining it could be misreporting. This is the primary reason that Hansa Group choose to sue the channel.
On top of that, Goswami is using his how to pe the judge, jury and executioner that too in his own case, on his own show and on his own channel where he is anchor and editor works against him. This causes conflict of interest and is not in any principle of journalism.
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On October 10,, Republic TV aired some documents which it described as the “Hansa Report”. Republic TV said that it has accessed the report whose contents, according to it, spelled the “beginning and end” of the “conspiracy”.
Hansa has always maintained that it is not concerned by the conclusion and just wants to keep it name and stay out of it.