manu bhaker
– Photo: PTI
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The Delhi High Court on Monday directed several social media users to remove their posts criticising journalist Rohan Dua’s interview with Olympian and India’s shooting star Manu Bhaker, calling it sexist. Justice Naveen Chawla ordered the social media handles to remove the posts within a week.
The court said that social media intermediaries should block the content if the handles fail to remove the posts. The court’s interim order came after the journalist’s lawyers filed an affidavit. It said that Bhaker had liked Dua’s interview, which proved that he did not object to the questions asked to him.
The details were submitted in the affidavit following a court directive to the journalist’s lawyers to show that the shooter had no problem with the interview. The court was informed that the interview was also approved by Bhaker’s team. Dua interviewed Bhaker after she won two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics this year.
A clip of the interview went viral on social media, where Dua was seen asking Bhaker about pictures of her and her mother with fellow Olympian Neeraj Chopra. After the interview, several social media handles also posted the video, calling the question sexist and the interviewer “unprofessional”.
In his defamation plea, Dua has argued that these statements not only attack his professional ability but also spread a false narrative that he was behaving in a sexist and inappropriate manner, undermining Bhaker’s achievements.
