The Press Council of India on Friday condemned the Andhra Pradesh government’s controversial order which authorised bureaucrats to sue media houses for ‘defamatory, false and baseless’ reports. The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government on October 30 issued a Government Order in this regard.
PCI chairman Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad expressed grave concerns over the controversial move. In a statement, he said, “The threat to prosecute media personnel, in general, shall demoralise journalists at large which shall have a severe bearing on the freedom of the press. Not only this, the problems which the order in question seeks to redress can very well be remedied by the Council itself.”
Taking suo motu cognisance of the issue, the PCI chairman directed the government to respond through its Chief Secretary and Special Commissioner(I&PR).
Besides the PCI, several senior journalists expressed concerns.
Senior journalist and India Today news anchor Rajdeep Sardesai told TNM, “Blanket powers to sue for defamation must not become a political weapon in the hands of any government to intimidate journalists and stifle criticism. The Andhra Pradesh government’s GO is entering dangerous territory and could easily be misused to browbeat journalists. Is there any need for such a GO when the due process of law provides enough options to the government already?”
In a similar vein, former resident editor at the Times of India Kingshuk Nag said, “Granted that the regional media in Andhra Pradesh is, to some extent, aligned with political parties and therefore cannot be deemed to be totally free. The latest move to prosecute the media for defamatory news and grant the powers to departmental secretaries is not at all a healthy move. This will have the effect of frightening the media at a time when press freedoms are being clamped upon everywhere in the country in various ways. Therefore, I can’t support the move as this will be like a Damocles sword hanging on the press. This might be used to browbeat the media and decentralising the powers can well lead to the powers to be misused by government babus.”
Despite the move being panned by all quarters, Andhra Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkataramaiah on Friday defended the order stating that they are helpless as media houses were publishing ‘baseless, defamatory and false’ reports against their 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,” he said.