INDIAN COURT GETS TOUGH WITH MURODCH
An Indian court in Delhi has ordered Rupert
Murdoch's counsel to draw up a list of the global media
baron's properties - both movable and immovable - in India.
Observers see in this a move by the court to attach all
his assets in India.
Chief metropolitan magistrate Prem Kumar issued
the order last weekend. He is presiding over an obscenity
case filed against Murdoch by an advocate Arun Aggarwal
around a year ago. Aggarwal had in a public interest lawsuit
complained that Star TV was broadcasting vulgar and obscene
movies on the Star Movies channel, a subscription-oriented
TV service. The movies deemed objectionable included: Dance
of the Damned, Stripped to Kill and Big Bad Mamma.
Aggarwal had complained that Murdoch had violated
India's Indecent Representation of Women Act, 1986 and the
Cinematography Act, 1952. The chief metropolitan magistrate
had labeled the films "filthy, indecent, obscene and (exploit)
sex commercially" in his 32 page summons, asking Murdoch
to appear before the court. These had not been received
by Murdoch at his residences in the US and Australia.
The court had then issued a non-bail-able
warrant against him and directed the Indian ministry of
external affairs (MEA) to have him extradited. The MEA had
expressed its inability to do so, saying that the charges
leveled against Murdoch were not covered under the extradition
treaties between the two countries.
Murdoch owns and runs the Star TV network
in India with its head office in a swanky building in north
Mumbai's industrial belt of Andheri. The network has offices
in Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Calcutta. It
does business under a company called News Television India
Pvt Ltd.
It also runs a joint venture with ESPN in
ESPN-Star Sports, apart from being a partner in India's
most popular private satellite television channel Zee TV.
When contacted by The Indian Cab&Sat Reporter,
Star TV India spokesperson Arrow Sinha Roy said that the
firm hadn't received a copy of the order and that "we are
not even aware of this."
