Bengaluru: After a section of Karnataka ministers moved a court seeking injunction against the media from publishing or airing anything 'defamatory or unauthenticated' against them, a Bengaluru court on Saturday restrained sixty-seven media houses from airing or publishing any defamatory content against six Karnataka ministers belonging to the Yediyurappa-led BJP government in connection the alleged sex-for-job scandal that hit the state recently, said a report.
Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Abdulrahiman A Nandgadi granted temporary injunction in favour of six ministers and restrained media houses from publishing or telecasting negative or sarcastic manner contents of the CD which led to the scandal, reported portal Bar and Bench.
The court, however, clarified in the order that the media houses can publish authenticated and true news on the subject after verification without making defamatory remarks against the six ministers, said the legal news portal.
The Ministers are Labour Minister Shivaram Hebbar, Agriculture Minister B C Patil, Cooperation Minister S T Somashekar, Health and Family Welfare, and Medical Education minister K Sudhakar, Youth Empowerment and Sports Minister K C Narayana Gowda and Urban Development Minister Bhyrathi Basavaraj.
The six ministers had on Friday approached the court of the additional city civil and sessions judge seeking injunction after Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned in the wake of being caught in a scandal demanding sexual favours from an unidentified woman in exchange for a job.
Health Minister Sudhakar alleged that there seems to be a big political conspiracy to defame them by misusing the media, and that they have approached court to prevent this hit-and- run smear campaign.
Pointing to the conspiracy to tarnish the image of individuals and destroy the goodwill gained from years of good work, he told reporters here that it was necessary to put an end to it and the government is also mulling bringing a law to check this kind of mischief.
Both mainstream media and social media platforms are being misused to broadcast misinformation and fake news.
(With PTI inputs)
