Media Liason Officers take charge in Secretariat

Media Liason Officers take charge in Secretariat
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Media Liason Officers take charge in Secretariat Under the garb of improving the communication system, the AP government has appointed 20 Media Liason Officers who will be placed at every Ministry and also Secretariat. Their job is to write press releases and send them to the publicity cell in Secretariat maintained by the I & PR department for transmission to the media houses.

The AP government is closely in the footsteps of the YSR regime to win over scribes and also deploy them in their service.


Under the garb of improving the communication system, the AP government has appointed 20 Media Liason Officers who will be placed at every Ministry and also Secretariat. Their job is to write press releases and send them to the publicity cell in Secretariat maintained by the I & PR department for transmission to the media houses.


About twenty of them were briefed on Wednesday and given a political, administrative sermoning by DR Parakala Prabhakar, the ex- Praja Party leader who has become media advisor to Chandrababu Naidu. It is believed that most of the MNLO's were chosen on the list provided by the TDP office on the directions of Nara Lokesh.


Media’s job has definitely become easier as they need not knock the doors of the journalists for any news and instead, if any (news what the government wants) come to their mobile and mail ids without fail. The CMO also has a team of ex- journalists hired at fat salaries to monitor the meetings of the CMO (review meetings, video conferences) and also curtain raisers and media notes of CM's foreign and domestic tours).


A senior political analyst said that Chandrababu was walking in footsteps of YSR and Indira Gandhi. Now journalists have to sit in publicity cell where news comes to them instead of investigating and building rapports with the officials, he said. This is nothing but indirect censorship. Already the CMO has been feeding news that it wants all channels and newspapers want to carry on apps like - Telegram, Instagram and also Whatsapp.( Whatsapp has now given up).


It’s good for news reporters in Secretariat and elsewhere who just have to keep their mobile and the ISP active. News that the newspapers want (news Vs Advertisements) will come to them directly in printable format. “What is carried in newspapers in the country is nothing but paid news,” said another media critic and RTI activist.

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