M Radhakrishnan has been suspended both as secretary and primary member of the Thiruvanthapuram Press Club on Monday, following a protest march taken out by members of the Network of Women in Media, India's Kerala chapter, demanding his ouster.
“Realising that the allegations against Radhakrishnan are serious, he is immediately suspended (from the Press Club). He is also suspended from his secretary post. I am doing this as secretary in charge,” says the letter given by journalist Sabloo M Thomas, who is currently taking over as secretary, to the NWMI. Sabloo’s letter also promises a management committee decision on Tuesday and a general body meeting soon after.
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NWMI’s march from the Secretariat to the Press Club and the demand for the ouster came in the wake of the Press Club’s inaction towards Radhakrishnan, who had harassed a woman journalist by gathering a few men and barging into her house on November 30 night and alleging she had an affair with a male colleague. The woman was also physically assaulted in front of her two little children. Her husband was not there at the time, and the attackers had tried to prevent her from calling him home. It is only when she managed to call her husband and he reached the house that the men were sent away. Two of the men in the gathering later admitted that they came only because Radhakrishnan had called them before, and it was understood this was a planned attack.
Saritha S Balan of TNM speaks at the protest
A police complaint was lodged by the woman and Radhakrishnan got arrested from the Press Club while an earlier protest was taken out by women journalists on Thursday. That protest too had been against the inaction of the Press Club towards its Secretary despite the complaint.
“All this happened because of an exchange between two women journalists in a private Whatsapp group, during which the victim supported a woman. The exchange concerned an earlier incident where Radhakrishan was involved and he was angry with the victim for not supporting him during the discussion in the group,” says a woman journalist who took part in the march.
She mentioned the facts in the incident, as a colleague of both Radhakrishnan and the woman who was attacked. The day after the attack, Radhakrishnan had allegedly spoken in bad light of the woman and the male colleague who visited her.
“What does it take for a man to get expelled from Press Club? This is a man who, after our last protest when we barricaded him at the Press Club, was arrested. He is out on bail. What does it take for the Press Club to oust a man like this?” asks Chithira Vijayakumar, who took part in the protest.
The Monday march witnessed the participation of a sizeable number of men as well, journalists and others in solidarity with the woman who was attacked. On Sunday, the Women in Cinema Collective, an organisation of women in the film industry had supported NWMI in its demands. Two years ago, WCC was formed as AMMA, the association of Malayalam actors, was refusing to act against actor Dileep who had been named as an accused in the case of abduction and sexual assault of an actor.