CM assures enquiry into issue of G O 938

Hyderabad, Feb 23 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today assured a journalists' delegation of an inquiry into the administrative order which proposed legal action against media for defamatory and baseless reports.

A delegation of the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) consisting Indian Journalists Union General Secretary K Srinivas Reddy, APUWJ President K Amarnath and APUWJ General Secretary D Amar, President of Press Club of Hyderabad A Suresh Kumar and President of Hyderabad Union of Journalists K Sudhaka Reddy met the Chief Minister and submitted a memorandum, strongly protesting against GO 938, which authorised Special Commissioner of Information and Public Relations to launch cases against newspapers and news channels for publishing and telecasting 'reports defamatory to the government'.

The Chief Minister said he would take action against the officials responsible for issuing the G O and the language used in it and would take steps to disband the Media Watch Group referred into the G O.

In the memorandum, the delegation said it was not proper to appoint the Special Commissioner of Information and Public Relation, who was supposed to bridge the gap between the media and the government, as nodal officer to prosecute media organisations.

The APUWJ warned the government that it would fight against all attempts to gag the press by mobilising journalist community and the civil society all over the country.

UNI