Hyderabad : Indian Journalists Union (IJU) today strongly condemned the reported statement of Kerala Government Chief Whip P C George against a TV reporter. George had reportedly said that Pradeep C Naduman, a journalist with a local Malayalam TV channel, “should be jailed” for exposing the alleged illegal activities of the imprisoned former Minister Balakrishna Pillai.
In a statement here, IJU Secretary General Devulapalli Amar said “the outburst of the Government Chief Whip is a direct attack on the freedom of the media and negation of the fundamental right of the citizens to know. What Pradeep did was a legitimate journalistic duty to expose the illegal activities of the person in high position.”
Pillai (77) landed in trouble last week with the television channel airing a telephonic talk with him, which involved violation of prison rules. Pradeep conducted a sting operation by calling Pillai, jailed in a graft case, and aired the conversation on the channel. There were uproarious scenes in Kerala Assembly for the last few days over the alleged mobile phone conversations of Pillai from jail with several powerful people in the state. Courtesy : Manoramaonline
