Media Professionals Must Not Threaten Or Extort: High Court Refuses To Quash Extortion FIR Against Zee Rajasthan's Former Head

Remarking that "media professionals are expected to avoid causing undue harm to anyone by way of threat or extortion", the Rajasthan High Court refused to quash an extortion FIR registered against former Channel Head of Zee Rajasthan on a complaint filed by the company. While underscoring the far-reaching impact of media, Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand observed that media, being the fourth pillar of democracy plays a vital role in a country's social, political, economical and international affairs and ensured individual's participation in the decision making process. However, this immense power comes with responsibility of avoiding causing undue harm to anyone by threatening or extortion.“…free press is a sine qua non for a democracy to survive and thrive and preserve the ethos of good and transparent governance…it is the responsibility of the media to ensure that they are not providing the public with information that is factually wrong, biased or simply unverified information…Media Professionals, Media Houses and Organizations are expected to adhere to core principles of journalism such as truth, accuracy and impartiality.They are not supposed to threaten anyone to extort anything by causing fear or pressure of incorrect reporting. This builds pubic trust and holds the press accountable for the information they disseminate.”It was the case of the complainant (Zee Media) that the petitioner misused his position being Head of the media house, by threatening or extorting several persons for which several complaints were received, and based on these complaints, the FIR was filed against the petitioner. On the contrary, it was submitted by the petitioner that not a single victim of alleged extortion had come forth to file the complaint against the petitioner. No offence was made out of criminal breach of trust, since there was no entrustment of property. After hearing the contentions and the perusal of records, the Court highlighted that multiple allegations were made against the petitioner accusing him of abusing his authority and demanding monetary favours from the vendors under the threat of broadcasting negative/damaging news content against them."The petitioner was the Head of the complainant-Company, and in the impugned FIR, several allegations of commission of cognizable offence have been levelled against him. Hence it cannot be said that mere levelling of allegations does not constitute cognizable offence against him. The allegations are required to be investigated by the Investigating Agency. Thus, this Court is not inclined to quash the impugned FIR. The judgments relied upon by counsel for the petitioner are not applicable in the facts and circumstances of the case. This Court finds that the allegations levelled against the petitioner in the impugned FIR constitute commission of a cognizable offence"It said that whether allegations made in the FIR against the petitioner are correct, genuine or true, the same is the subject-matter of investigation and the plea sought to be taken by the petitioner in respect of his innocence, is also required to be considered by the Investigating Officer.Accordingly, the petition was dismissed.Title: Ashish Dave v The State of Rajasthan & Anr. Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 398Click Here To Read/Download Order

Media Professionals Must Not Threaten Or Extort: High Court Refuses To Quash Extortion FIR Against Zee Rajasthan's Former Head

Nupur Agrawal

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