The Hindu : Distortion of facts alleged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 17, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Distortion of facts alleged

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 16. The Leader of the Opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan, has accused The New Indian Express of having distorted facts about his telephonic conversation with the newspaper's Editor (Kerala), N. Madhavan Kutty, on Saturday.

The denial comes in the wake of a front-page report in the paper today alleging that the Leader of the Opposition had tried to intimidate the paper over phone for having published reports to the effect that someone from his office was leaking information about internal deliberations of the CPI(M) to the media.

In a statement here today, Mr. Achuthanandan admitted that he had spoken to Mr. Madhavan Kutty over phone, but said he had hung up the phone on not getting a proper reply to any of his questions.

Terming the newspaper report, authored by Mr. Madhvan Kutty himself, as `deliberate propaganda', Mr. Achuthanandan said the allegation that he had threatened Mr. Madhavan Kutty could not be seen as journalism.

It was the duty of public persons to expose such activities being carried out in the name of journalistic work and to confront such practices by means of law.

"I have adopted both these methods in the past. I would do the same again," Mr. Achuthanandan said.

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