Who Is Priyanka Pulla? Journalist Named In Bharat Biotech Defamation Suit

Bharat Biotech, a vaccine maker, moved to court against Wire over 14 reports on it and its vaccine Covaxin and slapped a Rs 100 crore defamation suit, as per reports on Wednesday.

The suit was reportedly filed in Rangareddy district court in Telangana. The vaccine maker argued that the reports filed by Wire were false and were written with malicious intent. After hearing the plea by Bharat Biotech, the additional judge at the district court directed Wire to take down the 14 articles on the company. Wire was also restrained from publishing any 'defamatory articles' in Covaxin and Bharat Biotech, as per a Bar and Bench report. Another report added that the judge stated 'false articles' by the news company will "increase vaccine hesitancy".

The lawsuit has named the editors of Wire Siddharth Vardarajan , Sidharth Bhatia, MK Venu and science editor Vasudevan Mukunth. Priyanka Pulla, Seraj Ali, Shobhan Saxena, Florencia Costa, Banjot Kaur, Jammi Nagaraj Rao, PhD student Prem Anand Murugan, pharmaceutical professional Neeta Sanghi were also named in the lawsuit for writing the articles on Bharat Biotech for Wire.

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The editor of the news organisation, Siddharth Varadarajan claimed on Twitter that the district court gave its order after hearing the arguments of Bharat Biotech and did not even serve the notice to Wire. Speaking to Newslaundry, the editor said on Wednesday that he is still waiting to see the lawsuit and the court order. The next hearing of the case will be held on March 16.

Many social media users have been expressing solidarity with the journalists and contributors named in the lawsuit. Priyanka Pulla took to her Twitter and wrote, "Genuinely confused about what BB hopes to accomplish with this. There's tons of reporting out there on Covaxin, *apart from* these 14 stories. Those stories are still up. This just sounds like a tantrum by a five year old who can afford a lawyer."

Pulla also called out individuals who were seen celebrating the lawsuit. She wrote, "Note to self: do not judge the quality of a company's vaccine by the quality of their defamation suit.."

Who Is Priyanka Pulla ?

Pulla is a freelance journalist who reports on medicine, pharma and science policy. Her articles are frequently carried by the Wire. As per Pulla's LinkedIn bio, she started working as a Assistant Editor at the IRIS Business Services India Private Limited. She then went on to work for Outlook, Mint, Hindu in the capacity of correspondent, staff writer and senior assistant editor respectively. Pulla has been working as a freelance journalist since 2011.

In 2021, the journalist won the RedInk Award for Excellence in Journalism for her reportage on the undercounting of the COVID-19 deaths in the health and wellness category. The story that won her the prize was ‘India Is Undercounting Its COVID-19 Deaths. This Is How.’