New Delhi, March 21 -- The Delhi High Court on Friday held that calling a news organisation's output s*** or making derogatory remarks about its journalists amounts to defamation and cannot be justified as "legitimate criticism." A bench of justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla said this while directing digital news platform Newslaundry to take down allegedly disparaging videos and posts about the TV Today Group and its channels, Aaj Tak and India Today. "Terms such as "s*** standards" and "s*** reporters" clearly go beyond the realm of criticism or review and are defamatory and disparaging and therefore, intended to demean the plaintiff's reputation. There is no legitimate defence for calling the plaintiff's work "s***" or making derogatory remarks about its journalists. Such statements, in our view, cannot be protected under the guise of fair dealing or legitimate criticism," the court held. The division bench's comments came while hearing cross appeals filed by TV Today and Newslaundry against the single judge's court order from July 2022. In that judgment, the single judge declined to direct Newslaundry to take down the allegedly defamatory content. The single judge's ruling came in a defamation suit filed by TV Today, which alleged that programmes aired by Newslaundry on its digital and social media platforms had tarnished its reputation. TV Today further contended that Newslaundry had infringed its copyright by reproducing and publishing portions of its original broadcasts and telecasts. Newslaundry's counsel contended that the statements in question were made within the scope of satire and parody. The court rejected the contention....