The Hindu : Dharna by scribes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003

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Dharna by scribes

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHUBANESWAR NOV. 10. About 50 journalists boycotted the proceedings of the Orissa State Assembly and staged a dharna near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the Assembly premises today protesting the Tamil Nadu Assembly's orders against six journalists of the The Hindu and the Tamil daily Murasoli. Wearing black badges, the journalists from different newspapers and television channels sat on a dharna for an hour.

Two MLAs, Ashok Das of the Janata Dal(S) and Nalinikanta Mohanty, independent, also joined the dharna and raised slogans against the "attack on the freedom of the press". The legislative privileges should be codified to avoid harassment of mediapersons and others by State Legislatures, Mr. Das said. After some legislators informed the Speaker, Sarat Kumar Kar, of the dharna, he asked the Government Chief Whip, Pradeep Maharathi, and other members to request the agitating scribes to come inside the press gallery. Then the journalists met Mr. Kar and handed over a memorandum signed by 45 presspersons demanding the immediate withdrawal of the order of the Tamil Nadu Assembly. "It appears that the Tamil Nadu Assembly has taken the decision in a haste," Mr. Kar told the journalists during the meeting in his chamber.

While the journalists were sitting on dharna, the Opposition Leader and Congress MLA, Ramakanta Mishra, and other legislators raised their voice against the Tamil Nadu Speaker's orders against the journalists of The Hindu, and demanded that the issue be discussed in the House.

The Speaker, who gave them a patient hearing, however, said that the House could not discuss the issue as the matter was sub-judice.

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