The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Intolerance galore

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Saturday, Feb 24, 2007
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Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Intolerance galore

Although the Andhra Pradesh Government's order giving permission to Special Commissioner, Information and Public Relations, to initiate legal action against publishers and editors of newspapers that published reports defamatory to it was withdrawn after a furore in the Assembly and disowned by Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy himself, it shows that intolerance of inconvenient speech or writing comes easily to many. The basic attitude of those in power has been one of wanting the media to conform. The state has remained the source of the most potential threat to press freedom, always wielding the stick arrogantly. That the Chief Minister who names welfare schemes after Indira Gandhi should think nothing of curbing press freedom is hardly a surprise.

Vani Nagaraj,
Secunderabad

The order was targeted at media freedom and the image of Ramoji Rao, editor of Eenadu. Many chit fund companies in India have cheated the poor people in the past. Thousands of people are yet to get justice in those cases. Why does the Government not concentrate on them?

D. Venkateswar Rao,
Paloncha

The order was a direct attack on the fundamental right to freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution. The Government has all along maintained that the cases against Margadarsi had nothing to do with destabilising the Eenadu group but it appears now that it always had an ulterior motive of targeting the group.

S. Sudhir Kumar,
Hyderabad

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