The plan of the Telangana Government to ban the entry of journalists in the State Secretariat in Hyderabad, has stirred up the hornet’s nest.
As the Telangana Government has restricted the entry of journalists into the Secretariat, media personnel staged a protest demonstration on Friday in front of the Telangana Chief Minister’s office in the Secretariat on Friday.
A delegation of journalists both from the print and electronic media met the State Government’s adviser on cultural affairs, KV Ramana Chary. They submitted a memorandum to him demanding that the media should continue to have a free access to the Secretariat.
Meanwhile, the sharp and strong reaction, from the media organisations and journalists union, has forced Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to convene a meeting with the mediapersons on Saturday.
According to the sources, a meeting has been convened to be held on Saturday at the Press Academy on Chapel Road where the Chief Minister will discuss the implementation of the norm along with issuing of health cards to mediapersons with the editorial heads of newspapers and TV channels and office-bearers of journalist unions.
Denouncing the Government’s move, BJP spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao termed the restrictions on media as ‘undemocratic’. “Chief Minister KCR’s decision to restrain media at the Secretariat is undemocratic. If administrative inconvenience is the issue, the Government can re-work the permissible number of journalists from each media house. The BJP denounces the decision to restrain the media presence at the Secretariat," said Rao.