AP: Journalists boycott Home Minister's press meet

Hyderabad, Jun 25: Journalists today boycotted the press conference of Andhra Pradesh Home Minister K Jana Reddy at the conference hall in the Chief Minister's block in protest against the arrest of 'Andhrajyothi' daily Editor K Srinivas and two contributors last night.

As soon as the Minister announced in the press conference that the Government was ready to appoint an inquiry commission to probe the arrest of the scribes, journalists attending the conference, obstructed him by raising slogans against the Government and boycotted the conference.

Raising slogans against the Government, the journalists came out of the conference hall and staged a sit-in in front of the main entrance of the Chief Minister's block.

Later, they took out a procession from the Chief Minister's block to the main gate of the Secretariat. Additional forces were deployed in the Secretariat to prevent any untoward incident.

Earlier, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy reviewed the matter with the Home Minister and city Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao in the wake of rallies and 'rasta rokos' organised by journalist unions in the State to protest the arrests.

UNI