New Delhi: Asserting that media freedom is the essence of democracy, Union information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday invoked the curtailment of press freedom during the Emergency under the Congress rule.
Soon after taking charge of the I&B ministry, Mr Javadekar said the government not only recognises freedom of press, but cherishes it. “Press freedom is the essence of democracy and we not only recognise it, we cherish it. In the history of free India, only once this freedom of press was curtailed and that was in 1975 during Emergency bro-ught by the then Congress government. That was the black period for the me-dia, there was everyday censorship and complete curtailment of press freedom. We fought against it under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advaniji,” he said.
He added that these lea-ders fought for press freedom. “I am very happy that it was restored after our struggle was successful. I also fought and went to jail for 16 months. So for us press freedom is the basic essence of democracy,” he said.
