Criticising the action of the AP police in serving legal notice on T News channel, senior journalists have demanded that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu ease his attempts to “terrorise and mute the press”. They held protest meetings across the State on Saturday to express their solidarity with the channel.
At a round-table conference held here, that was attended by over 20 senior journalists of print and electronic media, they condemned the move of the AP police to “suppress voices of dissent” that emerge out of Telangana.
“The whole of Telangana agitation was a movement against oppression and it is an irony that we still have to fight the same oppression even after the formation of the new State,” said Narayana Reddy, CEO of T News.
If the move to use police against the press is not stopped, democracy itself will come to a standstill, said R. Dileep Reddy, executive editor of Sakshi, while speaking at the meet.
The journalists wanted the AP government to withdraw notices that were served, evoking section 5 r/w rules (6) of the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act-1995 that is meant to prevent airing content that creates enmity within Telugu linguistic communities. “The AP police entered the office of a television news channel without any provocation to serve notices. Mr.Naidu is only brewing enmity between the two States by unleashing the police against the media,” said Allam Narayana, Press Academy Chairman.
The AP government should slap cases against media organisations only if police investigation finds them culpable of airing unscrupulous content aimed at criminal defamation, they said.
