Withdraw the notice against Mediaah! blog

Petition Background:

At the heart of liberal democracy is an independent media. India has always had a vibrant free press. The Times of India is a great institution in that glorious tradition. This petition is motivated by a recent action of this media giant that is unbecoming of an ethical media institution.

The action in question is a legal notice it has served to a weblog by the name Mediaah! asking the latter to delete 19 posts that they perceive as defamatory and refrain from defaming them further in future.

Mediaah! (http://mediaah.blogspot.com) is a weblog that calls itself "The Media's Media". The 'No-holds-barred news and commentary on the Indian media' is run by Pradyumnan Maheshwari, a senior journalist. While no media house in the country has been spared the blog's criticisms, Times of India has had a lion's share of it which, the blog has maintained, is because TOI also has the lion's share of the media space and also of its reader's imagination.

Petition:

We the undersigned demand that The Times of India withdraw the legal notice it has served on the weblog Mediaah! hosted on http://mediaah.blogspot.com due to the following reasons.

1) Such a notice violates the true spirit of honest, independent journalism and particularly that of the web.

2) This is sheer hypocricy as when people whom you criticise go to court against you for defamation, you paint them in poor picture and cry hoarse abour press freedoms and sneer from the rooftops at their inability to take criticism in their stride.

3) Indian media badly needs independent scrutiny. Attempts to stifle the very first of a serious attempt at independent scrutiny is not a healthy sign. It shows that you have stuff in your closet that you don't want your readers to see.

4) What is defamatory to you is not defamatory to us. We are convinced that Mediaah! is impartial and has not attempted with any hidden agenda to malign you.

5) There is also a clash of mediums involved. You are primarily a print company notwithstanding your online ventures. Elsewhere in the world, weblogs are known to be competing with traditional media for readership. Mediaah! is one of the most successful Indian blogs. Your attempts at strangulating it legally aided by your deep pockets could well be part of a larger plan to prevent sucessful mediums from which competition could arise.

6) Mediaah! has not indulged in hate speech. You will not find abusive or discriminating language of any kind in the weblog. It offers commentary. Commentary is opinion. You may not agree with it. But trying to stop others from stating their opinion with the help of the state is deplorable. Voltaire famously said, "I may not agree with your stance, but i will defend to death your right to state it."