Chennai: It seems to be rough and tough times for the Fourth Estate in Tamil Nadu. The reporter of a Tamil TV channel, Polimer, got beaten up allegedly at the behest of a local policeman in Thoothukudi district a few days back and on Saturday, the highly respectable PMK chief Dr S Ramadoss said journalists were dogs.
Delivering his presidential address at a seminar on ‘rising trend of hate politics’ hosted by ‘Tamil Padaippaligal Periakkam’ (Tamil Creative Writers Forum) at Chennai, Dr Ramadoss recalled that a journalist representing the Kolkata-based ‘The Telegraph’ had some years ago asked him about his outfit being responsible for chopping trees during an agitation (demanding separate quota for his Vanniyar community) and in response, he had told him he would have the journalist asking that question next time-which he had answered “200 times so far”-chopped off.
He had invited the media to take a look and report about the thousands of saplings he had planted over the years that have grown well, but none turned up, the PMK chief said and thereafter launched a bitter attack on the Fourth Estate, calling the journalists dogs and even worse. While the rest of the audience heard him in shock, a handful of people in the hall cheered their leader.
The journalist community, understandably, responded in anger and anguish. “The media is open to criticism no doubt, but for a senior political leader like Dr Ramadoss to lash out in such uncivil and indecent language is highly condemnable. The words used by him are not even printable”, said Chennai Press Club joint secretary Bharati Tamizhan.
Calling upon the entire civil society, not just the journalist community, to condemn the PMK chief's “irresponsible remarks”, he said Dr Ramadoss should tender apology.
