Virudhunagar: Assault on the freedom of press is an assault on the fourth pillar that sustains a genuine democracy. On Saturday, Congress workers thrashed a photo journalist for taking pictures of empty chairs of a rally by the grand old party.
Reports say that the Congress president for Tamil Nadu K. S. Alagiri was leading the public meet when the incident took place. The public function was organized by the Congress party to explain the party’s manifesto to the people.
However, the public meeting had a low turnout and the photo journalist Muthuraj, who belong to a regional weekly, was trying to highlight it by snapping photos of empty chair when the State President of Congress was leading the meet.
Congress workers took offence and began questioning and thrashing the photo journalists. His camera was confiscated and broken. Other journalists who came to his rescue were also assaulted by the goons of the Congress party.
The Congress workers in Tamil Nadu have demonstrated that the party’s words is in no way translating in to actions. This assault on the freedom of press is a huge embarrassment to the party which tries to project an itself as the champion of free speech, freedom of press and expression.
