Hyderabad: The TRS government has informed the Centre that it had no role in the blocking of some TV channels in the state.
Replying to Bimal Julka, secretary, Union ministry of information and broadcasting, the government stated: “There is no role of the state government in transmission of the TV channels thro-ugh MSOs. Moreover, in the present case, the government has not issued any kind of instructions to any MSO or any other association to allegedly stop or close the telecast of any TV channel in Telangana and no orders were issued by the state government to stop the transmission of ABN Andhra Jyothi channel or any other channel.”
Read: K Chandrasekhar Rao slams TV9, Jyothi for ‘racist’ jibe at MLAs
Commissioner of information and public relations R.V. Chandravadan sent the letter on behalf of the state government.
ABN, TV9, BJP and Telugu Desam leaders had lodged complaints with the Union information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar against the TRS government for allegedly imposing a ban on two channels after the telecast of an “offensive” programme by TV9 recently.
Read: Channel to face action for anti-Telangana show despite apology
Refuting the channel’s charge that the government had blocked the channel, the TRS government also informed the Centre that the state government only dealt with the issue of advertisements to the electronic media to educate the people on the welfare and development activities of the government and also issued accreditation car-ds both to print and electronic media journalists.
“It is submitted that permission for uplink and downlink of news, current affairs, etc. and to start a satellite TV channel, permission to register as MSO will be given by the ministry of information and broadcasting, government of India. The telecast terms and conditions will be arrived at on mutual consensus of the MSO and the TV channel,” the government stated.
TV9’s Bullet News had snowballed into a major issue with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and leaders of all political parties condemning the programme, which had tarnished the image of the Legislative Assembly and its members, and seeking censure against the channel. The Assembly even adopted a resolution condemning TV9 and sought stringent action against it. The channel had later apologised for the programme.
Read: Journalists protest channel ban
Mr Rao was also furious over certain reports that appeared in Andhra Jyothi, the sister concern of ABN TV, against the state government.
After the Assembly admonished the TV channel, the MSOs in Telangana, as a mark of protest, had blocked the two channels from June 16.
It was more like a tit-for-tat since MSOs in Seemandhra had blocked T-News and V6 during the Telangana movement.
