A meeting, addressed by senior journalists and office-bearers of journalist associations at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai on Thursday, condemned and disapproved of BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai’s repeated inappropriate and insensitive comments against mediapersons. It was organised against the backdrop of Mr. Annamalai recently using inappropriate language against a senior television journalist who had interviewed Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.
The speakers also condemned the murderous assault on TV journalist S. Nesaprabhu in Tiruppur district and urged the government to bring to book those involved in the crime.
Addressing the meeting, N. Ram, Director, The Hindu Group Publishing Private Limited, pointed out that this was not the first time Mr. Annamalai was making such remarks. Besides advocating that the affected journalist file a criminal defamation case against the BJP leader, he proposed that the politician “should not be given publicity”.
Mr. Ram said that after his repeated remarks targeting mediapersons, the BJP State president “cannot go back to business as usual” and said that if media houses restricted publicity to him for a limited time period, it would be a victory.
He further pointed out that even veteran BJP leaders such as late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not make the kind of remarks Mr. Annamalai had made. Though former Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers M. Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, too, had issues with the way the press reported sometimes, they had never made such derogatory remarks, Mr. Ram said.
Nakkheeran Editor R.R. Gopal said his media house decided to boycott the BJP leader and alleged that he was attempting to use the ‘divide and rule’ tactic against the media.
Senior journalist A.S. Panneerselvan pointed out that the BJP was rewarding its functionaries who made such derogatory comments against the media and recalled the abusive remarks made by the retired Chief of Army Staff, General V.K. Singh, against journalists.
Sun News Editor-in-Chief M. Gunasekaran said senior BJP leaders such as Jharkhand Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan and BJP women’s wing president Vanathi Srinivasan, who hailed from the western belt of Tamil Nadu, would not endorse the derogatory remarks made by Mr. Annamalai.
Journalists and office-bearers of media organisations, including Thirugnanam, B.R. Aravindakshan, Peer Mohammed, Kavitha Muralidharan, Manimaran, A. Selvaraj, Haseef Mohammed, Sagayaraj, and M. Prabudhasan, condemned the BJP leader’s insensitive remarks.
