AP HC overturns YSRC’s gag order
The court upheld the pleas of ABN and TV5, which had sought restoring of telecast, causing a major embarrassment to the ruling party.
Vijayawada: The AP High Court has set aside an informal ban reportedly imposed by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, whose ministers threatened multiple-system operators (MSOs) to black out two Telugu TV.
The court upheld the pleas of ABN and TV5, which had sought restoring of telecast, causing a major embarrassment to the ruling party.
The unofficial gag order on the pretext of opposing their journalistic lapses in covering the ‘achievements’ of the government in its first 100 days, has drawn severe criticism from the Editor’s Guild, the opposition Telugu Desam and BJP, besides intellectuals, journalists and the public.
AP ministers Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, Perni Venkata Ramaiah and Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao reportedly held a meeting with MSOs at a government office located on the premises of Pandit Nehru bus station and instructed them to stop the telecast of ABN and TV5, and allegedly threatened them of dire consequences if they did not comply. The two channels were blacked out.
The YSRC is drawing criticism even from general public as it is reportedly directing the police to book cases against those who post critical remarks for going on a spree of undoing what the TD did.
TD MLA K. Atchennaidu said, “The YSRC is unable to tolerate criticism from any quarter.”
BJP senior leader P. Satyanarayana said, “Even as people are giving clear cut mandate in each election, the YSRC and the TD are unable to understand that the people can no longer be influenced by biased mass media. The government should allow media to play its role.”
An MSO official said, “Both the YSRC and the TD adopt same tactics to suppress the media. When TD was in power, it forced closure of Sakshi TV and NTV twice. The YSRC is taking revenge by shutting down ABN and TV5.”
Asked about the issue, YSRC Amalapuram MP Chintha Anuradha said, “We will accept constructive criticism. If a section of media deliberately takes up mis-information campaigns, it is unfair on their part and we will not accept such a tendency.”