The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : None ready to own up

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Saturday, Feb 24, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

None ready to own up

W. Chandrakanth

Senior officials claim the GO was issued without the knowledge of higher-ups

HYDERABAD: None in the State Government is willing to publicly own up the controversial order against media, GO Rt. No. 938, issued by Chief Secretary J. Hari Narayan on February 20.

No sooner the GO came to light on Thursday evening and reporters began making frantic enquiries about the authenticity of the photocopies, they possessed, than the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) realised its importance. Senior officials burnt telephone wires trying to convince journalists that the GO was issued without the knowledge of higher-ups and pleaded that it should be treated as withdrawn.

As the protests turned into a storm on Friday morning, there was stunned silence among the Ministers and the Congress MLAs in the Assembly lobbies.

`Catch-22' situation

Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the first to claim that the GO was issued without his knowledge. Bureaucrats in the CMO made similar claims as they were faced with a `Catch-22' situation. They would land in controversy if they owned up and, if they did not, it would spell more trouble, as it would imply they were kept in the dark about a crucial decision.

Special Commissioner (Information & Public Relations) C. Parthasarathi, who was expected to coordinate the legal action against Editors and Publishers, said he himself was unaware of the GO, as the file was not circulated to him. Information Minister Mohd. Ali Shabbir also pleaded innocence. `Media Watch'

Another puzzling aspect of the GO was its reference to `Media Watch' chaired by the Chief Minister. Media Watch is an informal name given to the four-member group of the Information Department constituted to daily track media reports and suggesting strategy to get positive coverage. Initiating legal proceedings against the media is not a part of its brief.

However, the issue of initiating criminal defamation against newspapers damaging the reputation of the Government was apparently discussed at one such meeting.

Two months ago, the CMO approved an order (GO Rt. No. 7096) for appointing a special public prosecutor to prosecute Eenadu Editor Ramoji Rao for publishing a report against Home Minister K. Jana Reddy.

Next came the idea of issuing an omnibus GO to facilitate all departments to file cases against newspapers and lending them financial support. The result was a poorly drafted GO that was issued on February 20.

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