Kerala journalists march in protest against governor’s 'discriminatory attitude'
Journalists in Kerala on Tuesday held a protest march to the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram after Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Monday expelled two journalists from a briefing he was addressing at a guest house in Kochi.
He accused the two journalists representing Kairali News and Media One of being cadre of the ruling party masquerading as media.
#WATCH | "If anybody from Kairali TV and Media One TV channels is here, I won't talk to you. I there is anybody from these two channels please get out," said Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan during a press briefing in Kochi, earlier today pic.twitter.com/aZap8BJRLv
— ANI (@ANI) November 7, 2022
‘Attack on press freedom’
The Kerala Union of Working Journalists called for the one-kilometre march from the museum to the governor’s house as Monday in protest against the governor’s discriminatory attitude towards selected media.
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“This is an attack on the freedom of the press and the governor is insulting the constitutional position being held by him. All the journalists, including the reporters of Kairali and Media One, were given clearance from Raj Bhavan in advance. Kicking out two journalists despite having clearance from Raj Bhavan is unacceptable,” M V Vinitha and R Kiran Babu, the state president and secretary of KUWJ said in a joint statement on Monday.
KPCC President K Sudhakaran and the opposition leader V D Satheeshan also said that the governor’s arbitrariness in picking the media of his choice is unacceptable. They said that this was against the spirit of democracy and an attack on the freedom of the press.
Row not for the first time
This was second time in a month that the governor had got into a row with the media. Earlier, on October 24, Raj Bhavan had barred four Malayalam channels, including Kairali News and Media One, from attending a press meet of the Governor.
Kairali News is the channel of ruling CPI (M) while Media One, a Malayalam satellite channel, is facing a ban from the central government over security issues.
The Supreme Court had last week reserved its judgement on the plea of Media One against the ban. In an interim order in March, the SC had allowed the channel to continue its broadcast.
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On Monday, the governor had also “challenged” the state government to “barge into my office” or “attack me on the road”. He was reacting to the announcement by the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) that a massive protest would be held in front of Raj Bhavan on November 15.
The ruling party alleges that the governor has been delaying key legislations.
