HBO wins libel case over airing India child labour story

American TV network HBO has won the libel case filed against it by a British sporting goods company over a report it aired about child labour in India.
The trial into the libel case filed by Mitre Sports International against the Time Warner Inc subsidiary began in a federal court last month.
Mitre had denied a 2008 report aired by HBO that said the company used underaged workers in India to produce its soccer balls.
The 11-member federal jury took just five hours on Friday to clear HBO of defamation claims, the New York Post reported.
Mitre had filed the suit against HBO in October, 2008, one month after a segment that aired on HBO's 'Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel' investigated the use of children to sew soccer balls.

The trial had leaned heavily on footage taken by HBO while preparing the segment, and by Mitre, which re-interviewed some of the kids featured in the show.

"We are delighted with the jury's decision, which confirms what we have said since the beginning of this legal proceeding in the fall of 2008: This case was without merit and the 'Real Sports' reporting was unimpeachable," HBO said in a statement.
Mitre said it was disappointed with the verdict but added that it was pleased to have gotten its side of the story before the public.
"For us, this case has not been about winning or losing. It has always been about setting the record straight even if we were unable to overcome the high burden of proof under US law," a Mitre spokesperson said.

Mitre had also accused HBO of staging key scenes in the segment, going so far as to cast middle-class school kids as "stitchers" and, in one case, paying a girl 100 rupees for her performance.
A juror told The Post that four of his colleagues began deliberations believing Mitre had been defamed but their discussion turned to Mitre's boasting about Sports Goods Foundation of India (SGFI), a 30-member collective of Indian companies that exports sports equipment.
Mitre played a leading role in the formation of SGFI 17 years ago and in defining its mission: "the prevention and rehabilitation of child labour in the sporting goods industry."

Its project director Ravi Purewal appeared in a video deposition during the trial that the jurors asked to have replayed Friday afternoon to look into Purewal's assertion that SGFI monitors 3,300 families with stitchers to protect against child abuse.
Yet it employs only five monitors.
"That's not nearly enough monitors if you really care for the kids. It made us think that the companies in SGFI are more concerned about protecting their profits and that Mitre's more concerned about protecting its reputation," the Post reported citing the juror.