Media vs. actors case: HC adjourns hearing

The Madras High Court has adjourned to October 19 the hearing on a petition filed by the Chennai Union of Journalists (CUJ), praying for direction to the city police commissioner to act on its complaint against some actors.

In the petition, CUJ said that the police commissioner had acted with alacrity on a complaint filed by South India Film Artistes' Association (SIFAA), while no action was taken on the complaint by various journalist bodies against some actors even five days after it was lodged with the police. The adjournment was made on the request of Public Prosecutor N.R. Elango, who submitted that he has no instructions from the police commissioner on the petition.

The ongoing clash between journalists and movie actors began after the police arrested a news editor of Dinamalar, a leading Tamil daily, for publication of a news report carrying names and photos of leading actors in Tamil cinema allegedly involved in prostitution. The report was based on the police statement given by actress Bhuvaneswari, who was earlier arrested by the city police for allegedly running a high profile sex racket from her house.

Angered by the report, SIFAA (popularly known as Nadigar Sangam) filed a police complaint against the daily, which resulted in the arrest of the daily’s news editor B. Lenin from his office last week. He was imprisoned and laterv released on bail.

In a meeting organised by SIFAA last week, six actors (Vivek, Sripriya, Vijayakumar, Arun Kumar, Satyaraj and Suriya) spoke in a derogative manner about journalists and their family members. Journalist bodies then filed a police complaint against the actors, but police are yet to take action on it.