MANGALORE: The unsavoury incidents, which have rocked the district since Thursday have attracted the attention of the national media. While national-level Kannada channels such as ETV and Udaya TV have been covering the developments here since the first incident took place at Kudroli on Wednesday night, English and Hindi channels descended in the city on Friday.

Times Now, NDTV and Aaj Tak sent fully equipped mini vans to cover the developments live. The arrival of Director-General and Inspector-General of Police Bhupendra Singh Sial along with Additional Director-General of Police (Crime) Subash Bharani to the city to take stock of the situation was another reason for media personnel, particularly the visual media to be present here in large numbers. A senior police official seeing the presence of media personnel in force in the city said, "Media interest in the events here is overwhelming."

Not sure if the attention would facilitate early restoration of peace in riot torn areas, the official added, "The media are doing its job and we are doing ours. Probably, the decision to impose curfew attracted the attention of mainstream national media." However, the live coverage by these channels failed to reach vast section residents here owing to a power shutdown. Many residents called up newspaper offices to know about the latest developments. People residing in other places called up relatives and friends after learning of the developments here.

"These channels have taken Mangalore into the living homes of people across the country," the official added. However, these developments have affected the daily updates posted by the district police authorities on their official blog.

The latest posting after a gap of two days informed Netizens about the curfew imposed in Mangalore sub-division limits in addition to curfew imposed in Mangalore Rural, Konaje and Ullal police station limits respectively.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail