The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court Tuesday refused to quash a case against actor-turned-politician S Ve Shekher in connection with a post he shared on Facebook in April 2018 that made derogatory remarks against women journalists.
While hearing a petition seeking to quash the FIR against Shekher, Justice Nisha Banu dismissed his defence that the post was a forwarded message he shared without reading. The case has been adjourned till next week.
In 2018, a day after Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit apologised to a woman journalist for patting her cheek during a press conference in Chennai, Shekher courted controversy by sharing a Facebook post that made derogatory remarks about women journalists.
The Facebook post was titled ‘Madurai University, Governor and the Virgin Cheeks of a Girl’. It claimed that more sexual abuses happen in media houses than in universities. It also claimed that a woman cannot become a reporter or news reader without sleeping with bigwigs.
“This ugly truth has come out through the complaints raised recently. These are the (using a derogatory word) women who have come out to question the Governor. Media people are the cheap, lowly, ugly, vulgar beings of Tamil Nadu. There are only few exceptions. I respect only them. Otherwise, the whole of TN media is in a regressive path caught in the hands of criminals, rascals, blackmailers,” read the post.
At the time, Shekher had said the post was shared “by mistake”. Apologising, he said he did not endorse the views expressed in it, and expressed surprise that people who were sharing screenshots of it did not find it offensive.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/madras-high-court-s-ve-shekher-facebook-post-women-7481828/
