Journalists of various newspapers and TV channels formed a human chain and held up traffic for about 15 minutes on the National Highway at Satyam junction on Thursday evening to protest against the ‘high handed’ behaviour of the police against journalists in Hyderabad.
The journalists under the banner of AP Union of Working Journalists (APUJW) raised slogans against the Director-General of Police V. Dinesh Reddy holding him responsible for the cases filed against The Hindu Resident Editor S. Nagesh Kumar and two reporters of the Telugu satellite news channel Zee 24 Gantalu for publication and telecast of a news report pertaining to the visit of the DGP to a ‘godman’ in the Old City of Hyderabad.
The participants in the dharna raised slogans denouncing the action of the police in booking cases against the RE of The Hindu and the arrest of the reporters of Zee 24 Gantalu.
They described it as ‘an attack on the freedom of the Press’ in a bid to silence the media.
Later, addressing the gathering, Indian Journalist Union Member M.R.N. Varma described the case against the RE of The Hindu and the arrest of Zee 24 Gantalu reporters as an attempt to curb the freedom of the Press.
He described it as an ‘abuse of police power’ and demanded unconditional withdrawal of cases filed against the media representatives.
APUWJ Electronic Media representative R. Ramachandra Rao felt that the foisting of cases against the media persons reflected the growing intolerance of the police towards the media when the news was not to their liking.
ABN Andhra Jyothi Bureau Chief Satish, APUWJ leaders Ramu and M. Krishna Rao spoke.
