The conflict between the political parties and the media reached a new peak on Friday with the YSRCP issuing a diktat barring its leaders from participating in the panel discussions organised by a vernacular channel, TV5. It also asked the reporters of the channel to stay away from the meetings and press conferences organised by the party or its leaders.
‘Yellow journalism’
In a press release, the YSRCP said that TV5 was barred from attending or covering any of the party programmes.
The decision was taken to put a check on the channels that were resorting to “yellow journalism” under the guise of freedom of the press, the release added.
The press release further said that the party had earlier barred ABN, another vernacular channel and sister concern of Andhra Jyothi, from covering its programmes. The friction between the political parties and TV channels that have been antagonistic to them has been on the rise for nearly a year now. The YSRCP had first barred the ABN channel from covering its programmes in May 2017. A little later, the TDP decided not to invite Sakshi and Namasthe Telangana to cover any of its programmes.
Origin of hostility
Media experts say the origin to the hostility was in the frequent references made in the Legislative Assembly of the undivided State by the then Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. He had often referred to the coverage in Eenadu and Andhra Jyothi as “those two newspapers.”
“The YSRCP activists took away our cameras when we went to cover their programmes and returned them only after erasing all visuals,” a senior ABN reporter told The Hindu.
TDP leaders frequently held press conferences to counter the reports that appeared in Sakshi newspaper and channel instead of issuing a rejoinder to the media group. Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, who would take on the YSRCP often, said Sakshi was the “voice of YSRCP.” In the recent Assembly session, TDP Chief Whip K. Ravikumar moved a privilege motion against Sakshi newspaper for reportedly “distorting” his statement in the House on BC reservation.