In protest against the Central Bureau of Investigation’s move to freeze the bank accounts of the Sakshi group, YSR Congress Party supporters and journalists took out separate rallies and staged dharnas across the State.
Raising slogans against the CBI move, the employees condemned the freezing of the bank accounts of Jagati Publications and Indira TV, owned by Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Tension prevailed for a while at Punjagutta crossroads when the police arrested the workers of the YSR Congress party when they tried to hold a protest. At ESI Hospital in Erragadda, the protestors squatted on the road and raised slogans against the Congress government.
The workers also set ablaze the effigies of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and the CBI.
Condemning the CBI action against media houses, the journalists took out a huge rally from the Somajiguda Press Club to Raj Bhavan. Holding placards and black flags, the journalists, including employees of Sakshi newspaper and TV channel condemned the CBI action and termed it as an attack on the freedom of press.
Sakshi input editor Govind Reddy said the freezing of accounts was an attempt to gag the media. He described it as the `Black Day’ in the history of democracy. The journalists also staged a protest in front of the CBI office in Visakhapatnam.
Raising slogans against the CBI action, they claimed that the freezing of the bank accounts of Jagati Publications and Indira TV was an attack on the freedom of press.
They demanded the bank accounts of the companies be restored immediately as hundreds of families were dependent on the newspaper and the TV channel for their livelihood.
–Agencies