- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:33 05:50 12:21 15:48 18:46 20:03
Court made television channel pay the guest half-a-million dirhams as symbolic compensation. (File)
A well-known guest won a court case and was compensated Dh100,000 by Dubai Court from a TV channel which did not broadcast his interview.
A person sued a satellite channel after it hosted him in one of its programmes and did not broadcast the episode after broadcasting advertisement on the channel of his interview and instead broadcasting the interview of a different person.
The plaintiff said that the TV channel approached him for an interview and sent him air tickets and booked him into a hotel. It also recorded an interview with him and said that it will be broadcasted on a particular date.
The plaintiff added that on that day, the TV channel announced that the interview would be broadcasted at a particular time. However, on that time, the TV channel aired an interview with a different person and did not show his interview.
The plaintiff added that he got in touch with the TV channel and tried to find out their reason for not airing his interview, but the TV channel did not give him any answer.
He also said that he requested the TV channel to make an apology for not showing his interview, but there was no response from them.
This, according to the plaintiff, affected him and caused moral damages to him and he filed a lawsuit against the channel before the Dubai Court to compel the TV channel to pay him half-a- million dirhams.
The Dubai Court of First Instances ruled in favour of the plaintiff and that he was eligible of Dh100,000 as compensation for his subsequent psychological and moral damages.
The TV channel did not accept the verdict, and appealed against it before the Court of Appeal which ruled of upholding the appellant.
The management of the TV channel did not accept the ruling and appealed against it before the Court of Cassation.
The Court of Cassation also ruled in favour of the plaintiff and said that he is eligible for Dh100,000 compensation.
The Court of Cassation said in its ruling that the misconduct of the TV channel confirms that it has committed a mistake by failing to comply with professional ethics, and also failed to abide by the Press Code of Ethics.
The court explained that the amount of compensation awarded has not estimated the magnitude of the damage to the guest, but the magnitude of the error committed by the TV channel and added it is only a symbolic compensation.
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