A local court in Hyderabad on February 23 has ordered the news portal, The Wire, to take down a number of articles published on the website against the vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL) pertaining to its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin.
Hearing a defamation suit for Rs 100 crore filed by Bharat Biotech against the website, the Ranga Reddy District Court in Hyderabad has also ordered restraining The Wire from further publishing any defamatory articles against the vaccine maker.
The Hyderabad headquartered biopharmaceuticals firm in its suit submitted that the news portal had published a series of articles involving false allegations against the vaccine maker with a malicious intent to undermine the reputation of the company.
Bharat Biotech, which said the news portal published 14 articles against its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin, submitted to the Court that the website published those articles containing false allegations on vaccine authorisation and approvals without proper fact-check.
Responding to the submissions of the vaccine maker that the defamatory articles by the website were leading to vaccine hesitancy, the Court directed The Wire to remove the defamatory articles published on the website within 48 hours from receipt of orders.
