In September, Rakul Preet Singh had filed a plea in the Delhi High Court against unsubstantiated reports in a drug-related case investigated by the Narcotics Control Bureau. Now, on Thursday, the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) has directed 9 news channels to issue an apology on December 17 for all the reports against the actress.
According to a report, the NBSA has asked news channels namely Zee News, Zee 24 Taas, Zee Hindustani, TimesNow, India Today, AajTak, India TV, News Nation and ABP News to issue an apology. The broadcasting authority observed the channels to be at fault for publishing vilifying reports against Singh in stories linking Bollywood actors to the drug mafia.
NBSA slams Zee.
In a big win for actor Rakul Preet Singh, News Broadcasting Standards Authority directs Zee News, Zee 24 Tas & Zee Hindustani to air apology on Dec 17 for their vilifying reports linking her to drugs and SSR case.
The actor was represented by Adv @AmanHingorani pic.twitter.com/2wbkTiVB0C
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) December 10, 2020
The NBSA also directed Times Now @TimesNow, India TV @indiatvnews, Aaj Tak @aajtak, India Today @IndiaToday
,News Nation @NewsNationTV, and ABP News @ABPNews
to take down the links of the reports against Rakul Singh from website and social media. The channels were warned.— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) December 10, 2020
"NBSA observed that these Hashtags/Taglines were very offensive and derogatory and gave an impression that the complainant was definitely a part of the ‘drug circle gang'. NBSA observed that the broadcaster, while telecasting such Hashtags, Taglines, and Images must understand the impression that these create on the viewers and the fact that these Taglines and Images, which have no connection with the news programmes being telecast, cannot be broadcast randomly," the order issued by the broadcasting authority read.
NBSA found the taglines used by Zee against Rakul Preet Singh to be violative of Code of Ethics and that misleading images of her drinking and smoking were shown.@ZeeNews @Rakulpreet pic.twitter.com/UVHvCzB99x
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) December 10, 2020
Reports against Rakul Preet were run on channels and portals after Rhea Chakraborty allegedly named her during an investigation. Rhea, in her statement to the NCB, reportedly stated that Rakul was involved in drugs. However, many channels did not report Rhea's retraction statement wherein she denied making any such disclosure to the NCB.
(Source: Live Law)
