Taking cognizance of the attack on Andhra Jyothi and the arrest of its editor and two other scribe, PCI asked the Andhra chief minister to ensure that media in the state was able to discharge its functions without any pressure or fear.

Taking cognizance of the attack on Andhra Jyothi and the arrest of its editor and two other scribe, PCI asked the chief minister to ensure that media in the state was able to discharge its functions without any pressure or fear.


In a letter to the chief minister, PCI chairman, Justice G V Ray stated that the recent incidents appeared prima facie to be posing threats to the free functioning of the press in the state. The PCI had already sought a detailed report from the chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh on these incidents.

In response to the representation from the Delhi Telugu Journalists Association, the PCI informed that it had decided to initiate suo motu action keeping in view the gravity of the matter.


Even as the Rajasekhara Reddy government tries to pretend that it has no role in police arrest of the editor and two others, police in Tirupati showed their ’might’ against journalist by taking as many as 51 journalists into custody during the arrival of chief minister to the temple city for a brief period.


The arrested journalist in Hyderabad were released almost after 24-hours after they were granted bail by the court. The delay in completing the court formalities hindered the release of Andhra Jyothi editor, K Srinivas and two other scribes from the Chanchalguda central prison, who were arrested three days ago under the provisions of scheduled castes/scheduled tribes (SC/ST) Atrocities Prevention Act, 1989.


They were freed after almost 24-hours of their getting bail. It was a hoax call to the Nampally criminal court complex that further delayed their release on Friday.


The persons who were to give surities for the editor and the two scribes were ready at the criminal courts complex at Nampally by 10 am. The surities were to be filed before the third metropolitan magistrate. Around 10:45 am, a bomb threat call was made to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in the court complex.


The court work was stalled and the police along with bomb disposal squads rushed to the spot to check for explosives in the sprawling complex.


After more than three-hour search, police declared that it was just a hoax and the court work commenced around 1 pm. However, as the third metropolitan magistrate was on leave, the surities were directed to go to the sixth metropolitan magistrate near Gandhi Bhavan.


After producing the surities before the sixth metropolitan magistrate, the newspaper management had to go to the Nampally courts complex again to get the order copy for the release of the journalists. The release order was produced to the prison authorities after pm.


Barely three days after Andhra Jyothi editor and two others were arrested in Hyderabad, the Tirupati police picked up about as many as 51 journalists in Tirupati on Friday (June 27). First, the police picked up a dozen journalists from the helipad, just about ten minutes ahead of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s chopper was to touch-down.


The police said, the ‘preventive arrest’ was to foil the attempts of mediapersions to raise anti-YSR slogans and hold a black-badge demonstration protesting against the attack on the media and freedom of press in the state.


Media representatives, however, dismissed the police charge as baseless and asserted that they only wanted to present a memorandum to the chief minister demanding the release of the Andhra Jyothi editor and two other journalists.


With news trickling down from the helipad about the rounding-off of reporters and photographers, media persons waiting at a private Kalyana Mandapam to cover the inauguration of the state convention of the ‘vaddera’ caste by Dr Reddy, raised slogans against the government and the police, even as the chief minister was walking into the hall.


A posse of policemen and a strong rope-party put up a human wall before the photographers and the reporters and pinned them down. Later, they whisked them in a police jeep to the Tiruchanur station. The scribes detained inside the compound of the Tiruchanur station held a vociferous sit-in protesting against the police high-handedness.