Sakshi TV is owned by YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu
Hyderabad: The AP Police has served defamation notices on T News and Sakshi TV for airing the audiotape of AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s alleged telephonic conversation with nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson in cash-for-vote scam. T News is associated with Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his family and operates out of Telangana Bhavan.
Sakshi TV is owned by YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The police warned T News that the content was defamatory and sought an explanation in three days.
Journalists’ unions and TRS have called the notice to T News an attack on the freedom of the press. Several journalists were taken into preventive custody by the Hyderabad police while protesting against the AP Police in front of the AP DGP’s office in Hyderabad on Saturday. A team of Vizag police, led by ACP (East) R. Ramana, reached the office of T News and handed over the notice on Friday night.
“Since the programme, telecast on June 7 at around 8.30 pm, contained material disturbing public tranquillity, affecting the maintenance of law and order as it in violation of Section 5 and Rule 6 of cable TV news network Act, as the programme is defamatory deliberate, false with suggestive innuendos and half-truths,” the notice stated.
T News CEO Narayan Reddy said the police had no right to issue notices without verifying the authenticity of the footage scientifically.
Telangana Union of Working Journalists said it was “Undemocratic, unconstitutional and disrespectful approach of the AP CM”.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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