Sita on NDTV’s lack of foresight:

A lone blogger is not a lone blogger. Not anymore

Their reasoning is simple. If we can send a 35 page legal notice to a poor lone blogger what can he do. Poor felow will have no option but to take down the article and publish a public apology for saying that XYZA is not God.

Their reasoning is right. Only that it does not reckon with the power of google cache, twitter and the connectedness of the blogosphere. What they forgot to forsee is that the removal of the post will do more harm to the reputation of NDTV and Barkha Datt than when it was posted.

Mridu Khullar asks NDTV to engage its viewers, not sue them:

Media organizations in the West have been making an effort in recent years, to bridge this divide and more importantly, learn and understand this phenomenon called blogging. They’re mostly learning to give bloggers respect even if they don’t fully understand it.

Most media organizations in India, so far, are still largely suspicious of bloggers and go out of their way to try and control this free flow of information.

Clearly, that doesn’t work. Because what happened is that NDTV completely missed the beat on this one. They got ONE apology. But they got hundreds, maybe thousands, of others to rehash not only a dead story, but express outrage at the network’s actions. At this point, it doesn’t even matter if NDTV had a case or not.

Churumuri wishes NDTV good luck:

If there is anything that l’affaire Barkha Dutt versus Cheytanya Kunte holds a mirror to—besides media hypocrisy, thin skins, forked tongues, and such like—it is: a) the quality of legal advice media behemoths receive and act upon, and b) the mainstream media’s bottomless ignorance of the wired world and how it works.

Even the spitting-image puppets that NDTV hauls out of the cupboard a few times a day to generate a laugh would have counselled Prannoy Roy & Co (for free) against embarking on the petty path of picking on a hapless blogger sitting in The Netherlands.

The bomb-Shell™ (pun intended) had boomerang written all over it, and in more ways than one.

Another open letter to Barkha Dutt, with love, from Ishy, ex-fan:

I hope you’ve found yourself satisfied Barkha but I’m not. Neither are the thousands of Indian bloggers, lakhs of people who eventually got to read that post Kunte originally wrote. So here’s my verdict on the whole issue;

NO NDTV for me now. NO Barkha Dutt for me now. NO NDTV for all my friends, family and online buddies. This doesn’t make any impact on your TRPs but even if it makes a 0.01% impact on your lame minds, I’ll be a happy person.

DewdropDream joins the bandwagon of bloggers speaking up against NDTV and Barkha Dutt’s recent misbehaviour.. (Blogbharti says welcome :))

Please note, opinion. It’s a free country. Everyone is allowed an opinion. And the fundamental right to the freedom of speech and expression. The press meantime, is expected to do their duty and present facts for the edification of the general public and not indulge in colouring up their reporting in whatever hues they wish. Expecting the public to simply swallow whatever is thrown their way and not speak up when they think something isn’t right is stupidity.

Mayank tells Ms.Dutt what could have been avoided:

Result: The whole Indian blogosphere is buring with the issue and every other blogger is united in criticizing Mr. Barkha Dutt and NDTV. I just fail to find the rationale thinking behind the step. They are now a subject of thrashing by every Indian blogger. Ms. Dutt and NDTV, whether you like it or not, we do have a voice and I am pretty sure that now you are very well aware of this.
They should understand and acknowledge that just like them, we also have the freedom of speech. Bullying one person will only result in more 1000 people standing against you. Now go on and sue every blogger on the internet.

Oz wonders:

Would Barkha Dutt or NDTV survive an onslaught against them, were this to happen in the USA? I don’t think so. But it happens only in India. The media, the torch bearers of public rights, themselves crushed the right of speech of an Indian citizen. So there you have it. I fling my hands up in the air and walk on.