Dawn CEO Hameed Haroon is Taking Jami to Court

Here’s the update on the case.

Jami-Hameed Haroon

Dawn Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hameed Haroon has filed a defamation case against filmmaker Jamshed Mahmood in the Sindh High Court (SHC). Dawn’s CEO had previously sent Jami a notice warning legal action if he did not issue an apology for sexual assault allegations he made against Haroon.

Jami is now facing a lawsuit for making “defamatory statements” against Hameed Haroon, by coming forward with rape accusations against the media tycoon.

Previously in October, 2019 Jami came forward with his #MeToo story, alleging he was raped by a “media tycoon” 13 years ago and on December 28.


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Initially, the Moor filmmaker didn’t name any names. Later he gained the courage to name the Dawn CEO as his alleged rapist. Hameed Haroon rejected the claims and threatened legal action.

This was followed by a legal notice to the director under Section 8 of the Defamation Ordinance 2002. Haroon demanded an unconditional public apology and retraction of rape allegations.

In his petition Dawn’s CEO urged the court to;

“perpetually restrain [the filmmaker], through himself or by instigating others, from making … defamatory statements” against the Dawn CEO.

The petition states that Jami specifically targeted Dawn, without providing even an iota of proof. Adding that the top court should direct Jami to ‘permanently remove/delete the defamatory statements‘ from his Twitter account, and pays one billion rupees

“to be disbursed to any charitable organisation or for any noble cause (including the freedom of the press) that the court deems appropriate”.

 


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This isn’t the first time press freedom has been brought up amid these rape allegations. Previously in the legal notice Hameed Haroon sent to Jami, the rape accusations leveled against him were dubbed a ploy by ‘powerful interests in the state and society‘ against press freedom.

“This false and malicious allegation has been levelled at the instigation of powerful interests in the state and society who, for their own motives and the promotion of their own repressive narrative, wish to destroy our client’s credibility, especially his credibility as a leading advocate of the freedom of the press.”