Hyderabad : In another case of example, where political highhandedness of a ruling government can overpower the freedom of press in a Democratic set up. The Telangana Multiple System Operators (MSOs) on 11 August 2014 decided to continue blockade of TV9 and ABN Andhra Jyothy news channels, in support of the ruling Telangana Government’s hate against the two leading news channels.
Federation of Telangana MSOs’ president M Subhash Reddy, charged the channels of telecasting objectionable content that hurt the sentiments of Telangana people and said, “Even the Telangana state assembly took cognisance of the objectionable content.”
The Federation maintained that they had presented their case to the High Court and responded to a notice served by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). “The TRAI sought explanation on why we had stopped the two channels without the mandatory 15-day notice and explained the reasons of pressure from Telangana people.
However, the management of the affected news channels rejected the reason quoted by Telangana MSO Federation calling it as false and baseless, as there was no visible agitation from any corners of people of Telangana and it is a false agenda created by the KCR government and the federation is dancing to its tune in-order to please the state government.
Earlier, At a meeting attended by district representatives, the Federation of Telangana MSOs said they are planning to send a delegation to the I&B minister to explain to him the events that led to the cable operators blocking these two news channels.
Reddy also reiterated that since the channels are not doing anything to find a resolution to the problem, the MSOs will stick to their decision of blocking the channels.
