Prevent UNI takeover bid: Left tells government

New Delhi, Sep 28 (UNI) The CPI(M) and the CPI-- two key allies of the ruling UPA-- have sought the immediate intervention of the government to prevent attempts to take control of the United News of India (UNI) by a private media group, saying the takeover bid amounted to a threat to press freedom and democratic traditions of the country.

Earlier, general secretaries of the two parties-- Mr Prakash Karat (CPI-M) and Mr A.B Bardhan (CPI)-- had written separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointing out that the takeover of the news agency by Zee Group of Mr Subhash Chandra would change the independent and impartial character of the seminal institution involved in disseminating information in an objective manner throughout the country.

In a statement here today, the CPI (M) Polit Bureau said the government has the power to regulate the affairs of the news agency, which was set up under Section 25 as a no-profit organisation.

The party along with the CPI, which had sought a probe into the deal in which Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra and three of his associates were co-opted on the UNI Board as directors, said the Left parties would raise the issue in the UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting scheduled for October 4.

''The government of India has the power to regulate the affairs of the company under the law,'' the CPI (M) Polit Bureau said while urging the Centre to ''intervene in the matter to prevent the change.

The BJP has also extended support in maintaining the unbiased and neutral character of the news agency, and asked the government to look into the deal.

''Such a deal involving UNI, which has maintained its objective and impartial character, must have prior sanction and approval of the government,'' former Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said while addressing UNI employees at the agency's headquarters here today.

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