THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran on Tuesday slammed the decision to block the entry of media persons into the Secretariat premises saying that Thiruvananthapuram was not Jaipur.
The mediapersons were stopped at the entry gate of secretariat by security saying that there was no permission to allow them due to security reasons. The decision led to a major controversy with allegations doing the rounds that the media had been deliberately prevented from taking visuals of P.S. Antony Commission submitting report to the chief minister.
Kanam said Thiruvananthapuram was not Jaipur, indirectly reminding the LDF government about the Ordinance brought by Vasundhara Raje Govern-ment to stop media from reporting on corruption charges against public servants, magistrates and judges. The unprecedented restrictions had invited nationwide protest from journalists and various organizations.
CPI central secretariat member Pannyan Raveendran sought to know as to why was the government shying away from facing criticism. The government decision to restrict the entry of media persons also came in for sharp criticism from other political leaders including opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and former KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran. They termed the decision as totally undemocratic.
The chief minister's office had clarified that the restrictions were imposed because of security concerns. While there were restrictions on entry of vehicles belonging to media, there was no ban on reporters walking into the secretariat premises till now.
Journos condemn move
The Kerala Union of Working Journalists has condemned the bar on media persons at the Secretariat and the attack during Munnar hartal on Tuesday, saying that it suspected a move by the police or their high-ups to gag the media on the pretext of Intelligence alert on increased threats to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
KUWJ general secretary C Narayanan said Mr Pinarayi Vijayn and others in Government should ponder on increasing attacks on the media.
He welcomed measures being taken to improve the security for the CM but it was unfortunate that media persons, who reached the Secretariat to cover the Antony Commission report handover, were prevented from doing their duty.
“Such actions had never happened (barring accredited journos) and it is wrong”, said Mr Naryanan.
He said it would be naïve to think that the media could be prevented from disseminating information and analyzing events by imposing such curbs.
It is undemocratic to apply such restrictions instead of engaging the media in healthy criticism. The media fraternity in Kerala is anxious over the developments, he said.
