NEW DELHI – A New Delhi court on Wednesday acquitted an Indian journalist of libel after she accused MJ Akbar, a prominent former government minister and newspaper editor, of sexual harassment in a dispute widely regarded as a barometer of the country’s new #MeToo movement. .
Mr. Akbar accused journalist Priya Ramani of criminal libel after she made her allegations. But the court found that Mr. Akbar could not prove his case and said Ramani’s claims were in the interest of preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.
The court said in its order that the “right to reputation cannot be protected at the expense of the right to dignity.”
Mr Akbar has the opportunity to appeal.
As mev. Ramani was convicted of libel, she could face up to two years in prison, a fine or both. Under Indian law, individuals can claim a criminal defamation in the courts, even though the legal standard is higher than for civil defamation.
Although Mrs. Ramani was acquitted, experts say that the defamation law can still have a huge effect among women who want to come forward to complain about harassment and violence by powerful men. Mr. Akbar, a member of the Indian parliament, has assembled a team of nearly 100 lawyers to file his defamation against Ramani.
Mr. Akbar, who founded and edited several newspapers and magazines before switching to politics, was the most prominent figure in Indian public life amid rising accusations of sexual harassment amid the rise of the #MeToo movement stare. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, and was part of the team that helped Mr. Bring Modi to power during the 2014 election in India.
He resigned as foreign minister in 2018 after Ramani’s allegations of sexual harassment led 20 other women to sign a letter making similar accusations. Mr. Akbar denied all the women’s allegations.
The accusations of me. Ramani focused on Mr. Akbar’s tenure in The Asian Age, the newspaper he started in the early 1990s.
In October 2017, she wrote an article for Vogue India in which she described an awkward encounter with a senior editor during a job interview more than 20 years earlier. She described him as a legend in the news industry, but not his name.
A year later, in October 2018, when the #MeToo movement swept Indian social media, with Bollywood stars and journalists speaking out, Ms. Ramani tweeted a link to the Vogue story, which Mr. Akbar, when a junior foreign minister in Mr. Modi se kabinet.
“Many women have worse stories about this predator,” she wrote. “Maybe they will share.”
Within days, nearly a dozen journalists came forward with allegations ranging from harassment to rape by Mr. Akbar during his tenure as senior editor at various Indian publications. By the end of the month, 21 female journalists had published their allegations. They said that Mr. Akbar used his position as senior editor to harass and intimidate them, mostly young women who began their careers in journalism.
Mr. Akbar resigned amid the allegations, but the next day a defamation case against me. Ramani submitted. Me. Ramani has since deactivated her Twitter account. Mr. Akbar said the deactivation amounted to evidence.
In a court hearing in September, Ms. Ramani said her allegations do not amount to libel because they are true and in the public interest.
Mr. Akbar on Wednesday did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Mrs. Ramani said she could not discuss the case before sentencing.
“I spoke because women spoke before me,” she said at a 2019 literature festival. “I talked so people could talk to me.”