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BJP to boycott CNN-IBN

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday decided to boycott CNN-IBN. It said no party functionary would appear on the television channel until it telecast the “unedited tapes” on the “cash-for-vote” scandal now being looked into by a parliamentary committee.

BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said the channel had come “under severe pressure from the government/and/or corporate houses.”

Denying the allegation, CNN-IBN head Rajdeep Sardesai said the channel stood by its stand taken on July 22 and reiterated in a statement on Wednesday that “in this particular story [as recorded by the hidden cameras] there were many loose ends that needed to be cross-checked, corroborated and investigated further before the story could be aired.”

Mr. Naidu said the channel’s decision not to telecast the tapes seriously compromised the freedom of the press and it was a case of suppression of truth. But Mr. Sardesai made it plain that the the decision was taken in the interest of “credible journalism.”

Salve’s views

Leading jurist and former Solicitor-General Harish Salve, who viewed the tapes, said: “The investigation is incomplete and, therefore, airing the tapes at this stage would necessarily involve arriving at inferences.” He advised the channel not to telecast the tapes at this juncture when the parliamentary inquiry was on.

The BJP, however, offered to review its decision, if the channel, “even at this late stage” telecast the tapes. Mr. Naidu offered to “assist” the CNN-IBN, in whatever way possible, in resisting “government pressure.”

The channel maintained that precisely because its credibility as an independent media organisation was at stake, it could not telecast the tapes without proper corroboration and verification of the story.

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