Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation. The channel has been involved in several controversies and has broadcast fabricated news stories on multiple occasions. The channel has been subjected to an ongoing criminal defamation case against legislator Mahua Moitra as of March 2020. History Zee Media Corporation Limited (formerly Zee News Ltd.) was founded by Essel Group. and it was incorporated in August 27, 1999 as Zee Sports Ltd. it was a subsidiary of the Zee Telefilms Ltd (later renamed to Zee Entertainment Enterprises).The company was reincorporated on 27 May 2004, as Zee News Ltd. It was demerged as a separate company of the Essel Group in 2006. In 2013, Zee News Ltd changed its name to Zee Media Corporation Limited. The chairman of the group is Subhash Chandra, who is a Bharatiya Janata Party-backed member of the Rajya Sabha. Jindal Group incident The channel was tried for allegedly extorting ₹1 billion from the Jindal Group revealed through a sting operation. Two senior journalists Sudhir Chaudhary and Sameer Ahluwalia were arrested. The two were sent to 14-day judicial custody in Tihar jail and were ultimately released on bail. Naveen Jindal had accused the two journalists of trying to extort in advertisements for Zee News from him through blackmail by threatening to air stories against his company in the Coalgate scam. Zee News denied the charges and made counter claims of Jindal offering them to halt their investigations against Jindal Steel's involvement in the scam but filed no charges. In July 2018, the Jindal Group withdrew the case against Zee News and both parties to the litigation stated that an out of court settlement had been reached which remains undisclosed. Ban in Nepal On 9 July 2020, Nepal's satellite and cable television operators banned Zee News and some other Indian privately owned news channels, citing "propaganda and defamatory report against Nepal government". Notices by News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority In June 2022, The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority said Zee News' headlines on Umar Khalid ‘gave an impression that the accused had already been declared guilty’ and asked them to take down the segments. In the same month, The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority directed Zee News to take down a debate show from its