India’s #MeToo movement received a boost on Wednesday when a prominent female journalist was cleared of criminal defamation after publicly accusing an erstwhile government minister of impropriety.
Priya Ramani, who faced two years in prison if convicted, said she hoped her acquittal would “make more women speak up and discourage powerful men from filing false cases against women who share their truths”.
MJ Akbar, a former minister of state for external affairs in the Bharatiya Janata party government, resigned from his post in October 2018 after 16 female journalists publicly accused him of predatory workplace behaviour during his years as a powerful newspaper editor.