The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) has ruled for the first time on a common TV practice, with the decision having the potential to cleanse TV news bellies of exaggerated headlines and false „bombshell revelations” announcements.
The ruling in question was handed down by the Court of Cassation of Justice last November in a lawsuit brought by the head of the Department for Emergency Situations Raed Arafat against Romania TV. Now, the judges have published the reasoning behind the decision, which could put the brakes on exaggerated or false headlines and headlines, according to Biziday.ro.
The head of the DSU sued Romania TV, accusing a smear campaign in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, by cascading offensive headlines and headlines, sometimes over the course of a whole day, which theoretically announced revelations but were not followed by concrete news, or if they were, they proved that the initial headlines were greatly exaggerated.
At first instance, Arafat won the case, in 2021, at the Bucharest court, but on appeal to the Court of Appeal the magistrates said that only viewers can sanction such practices if they prove to be misleading.
In November, ICCJ overturned, the last November, the CAB decision and set the case for retrial to clearly analyse the damage done to the DSU chief.
The reasoning now published states that while the CAB took into account in its judgment an ECHR decision which accepts that a print media article can have a dose of exaggeration in the headline, the Court says that in the case of television viewers who see a headline/headline at a certain time of day do not necessarily have access to the programme promoted by the advert, which is running at a different time.
The judgment thus makes a clear distinction between print and TV headlines and sets a precedent that could be relied on in other lawsuits from now on.