Close on the heels of SFI activists barging into the regional office of Asianet news channel at Palarivattom in NH Bypass on Friday night and raising slogans, the Palarivattom Police have registered a case against 30 of them.
The Press Council of India (PCI), Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), Thiruvananthapuram Press Club, veteran journalists, senior politicians, Opposition Leader V. D. Satheesan are among those who condemned the incident. The attack is a deplorable act, without parallel in recent Kerala history, senior journalist B.R.P. Bhaskar said. Expressing concern at the incident, the PCI protested against attempts to intimidate journalists. These strong arm tactics have no place in democracy, it said and sought a swift probe by the State Government.
The General Secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC), K. C. Venugopal termed the incident as a blot on democracy and an attempt to intimidate journalists. He said the State and Central Governments were pursuing a similar track, by referring to attempts to stifle the media, and the steep increase in price of cooking gas and fuel cess by the two Governments. Opposition Leader Mr. Satheesan said the incident reeked of fascism and was an aftermath of a conspiracy. The District Congress Committee (DCC) president Mohammed Shiyas, who visited the news channel office soon after the incident and affirmed solidarity with the staff, too condemned the mode of agitation.
Journalists, under the banner of KUWJ and other bodies, would take out processions to the Secretariat and in different districts, to denounce the incident. The KUWJ termed Friday’s incident as goondaism and not a protest. The KUWJ district committee demanded that the State Government take strict action against the activists who pushed aside a security guard and also reportedly displayed a banner against the news channel.
They were protesting the telecast of an alleged ‘fake’ interview of a teenaged girl from a school in northern Kerala presenting her as a ‘victim’ of sexual assault.
