Press Trust of India (PTI) was called by the Delhi High Court on July 5th to respond to a lawsuit that its rival Asian News International (ANI) had filed. The latter has accused PTI of plagiarism and copyright violations.
What gave rise to the issue is the video footage showing passengers on a SpiceJet flight suffering as a result of a broken air conditioning system during a severe heatwave.
PTI was ordered to submit a response by Justice Mini Pushkarna, who also scheduled a further hearing for August 9th.
The video in question is from the incident that happened on June 19, when the country was going through a severe heat wave and the Spicejet flight’s AC stopped working even as the plane was on the runway.
Longer and shorter versions of the video from inside the aircraft were filmed by ANI’s video crew, but PTI also released the same videos as soon as they were tweeted on X and posted on ANI’s feed.
According to a Bar and Bench article, ANI has requested damages of more than Rs 2 crores as well as a perpetual injunction prohibiting PTI from publishing any more of the plaintiff’s original works.
PTI’s senior advocate, Rajshekhar Rao, stated during his appearance that the videos would be removed within a day.
ANI emphasised that PTI has to apologise and provide clarity to the news outlets that carried the story under a PTI feed.