After the YSRCP government received flak for issuing a controversial order authorising bureaucrats to sue media houses, Andhra Pradesh I&PR Minister Perni Venkataramaiah told reporters that the government was left with no choice as media houses were publishing ‘baseless, defamatory and false’ reports against the YSRCP government.
“The government is still brand new, the red bridal paint on its feet has still not dried, and they’re already publishing such terrible news. They’re not even ready to carry rejoinders clarifying the facts. In such a situation, we are helpless. We thought we should at least be able to go for defamation, because the department heads will know the facts,” Venkataramaiah said, adding that the authority to go to court was delegated in order to save the government’s dignity and honour.
Dismissing the criticism against the move from various media outlets, Venkataramaiah claimed that the government was unjustly being portrayed as monstrous and dictatorial.
The minister also said that the media in Andhra Pradesh was different from national media because of their biases towards certain political parties. “Naidu has targeted journalists from Sakshi in the past, urging that they should be jailed. Now he claims that press freedom is curbed,” Venkataramiah added. Sakshi TV and Sakshi Publications is owned by Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, whose wife YS Bharati Reddy is the chairperson of the group.
Summarising the contents of the controversial order once again, which empowers the secretaries of respective departments to issue rejoinders, file complaints and lodge cases against ‘defamatory news items’, Venkataramaiah questioned, “What is wrong with that? Where are the curbs? We are not targeting the reporters. Media ownership is making them do it. News should be written based on evidence, one cannot simply manufacture the news for sarcastic, rhyming headlines, and demean individuals while hurting their dignity or their political reputation.”
He also blamed media houses for demanding excessive privileges. “It seems like media owners are saying that they should be considered above the judiciary, above the Supreme Court,” he said.
“If you’re writing the truth, why would you be afraid of the law? Where are the shackles? Rejoinders should be carried to apprise the public of facts. If not, an explanation can be sought from the media house,” he added.