Thiruvananthapuram: Expressing concern over the police action against certain media houses in Kerala, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Prakash Javdekar said on Wednesday that freedom of the press was under attack in the state and pointed out the Left government’s ‘political vendetta’ against the media and media personnel and those who expose the alleged wrongdoings of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led dispensation.
“This is clearly a political vendetta and an attack on freedom of the press. This is the Kerala government’s effort to terrorise the media. This is condemnable,” Javadekar said.
“The CP(I)M had opposed the emergency imposed by Congress, But now they are doing the same as what Congress did. They are hounding the media houses that criticise them. A situation similar to the state of emergency is prevailing in Kerala,” he added.
Referring to the cases registered against a woman reporter of a prominent Malayalam news channel in Kochi a few weeks ago and the recent police action against a Thiruvananthapuram-based online news channel and its employees, the senior BJP leader alleged that those were the “first kind of terrorism against the media” in the southern state.
The statement of the BJP Kerala in-charge came amid police action against a Malayalam online news channel as part of an investigation to trace its editor following a case filed against him under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by an MLA belonging to the ruling left.
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