Blackout of TV channels: Press Council begins probe

Media representatives depose before the committee

Hyderabad: The three-member committee of the Press Council of India headed by Rajiv Ranjan Nag on Tuesday started its probe into the remarks made by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao against media and blocking of two TV channels by Multiple System Operators (MSOs).

Representatives of different media houses and journalist unions deposed before the panel. The channel representatives said every applicable law and every constitutional provision that guaranteed freedom of expression and press freedom had been violated by the MSOs and asked for immediate remedial measures. They said, “Such violation could not take place without active abetment of the government.”

Representatives of the two television channels whose signals were put off the air by the MSOs explained in detail the sequence of events that lead to the banning of their channels.

They alleged that the MSOs had revealed, in one of their letters to the City Commissioner of Police, that they had stopped airing the two channels, fearing an attack from the local leaders belonging to the ruling party.

Despite several appeals to the State government and particularly to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, there was no-let off in the situation, and peaceful protests were handled with iron fists and in undemocratic manner, they complained.

Silencing “a number one channel in violation of all the laws” would tantamount to force others in the press to fall in line with the wishes of the ruling party government, they alleged.

However, countering the same, representatives of the Telangana Union of Working Journalists and few more media houses from Hyderabad brushed aside the allegations levelled against KCR.

They also clarified that there was no threat to the press freedom in Telangana. They asked the members of the committee to understand the statements of KCR not in terms of “its dictionary meaning” as it was an “idiomatic expression.”

Senior journalist Srinivasa Reddy said the MSOs, during the discussions with journalist unions, had expressed their helplessness in restoring airing of the two channels due to the pressure being mounted by those in the power from the ruling party government. The MSO fear that restoration of the two channels might annoy the government and it might nationalise the cable business on the lines of Tamilanadu, BJP representative Krishna Sagara Rao said the statements of KCR clearly violated the laws and amounted to threatening the media.

Krishna Prasad and Amaranath, other two members of the committee, participated in the public hearing. The committee will visit Warangal on Wednesday.