Hyderabad, April 24: With PSR Anjaneyulu taking charge as the Vijayawada city police commissioner in spite of his indictment by the Press Council of India (PCI), journalist unions have decided to launch agitation against government’s `insensitivity’ to freedom of the press.’ Journalists will stage a one-day hunger strike on April 28 in which leaders of journalist unions and senior journalists from the print and electronic media will participate.
In a joint statement the Indian Journalists Union (IJU), AP Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ), AP Electronic Media Journalists Association, AP Electronic Media Cameramen’s Association and AP Press Photographers Association condemned the posting of Anjaneyulu as the Vijayawada police commissioner. Anjaneyulu’s role in the brutal lathicharge on mediapersons on the Osmania University campus during the separate Telangana agitation had invited the wrath of journalist unions.
The PCI, which conducted an inquiry, indicted Anjaneyulu for the attack on mediamen and recommened to the government not to post him in a post which can directly or indirectly interfere in freedom of the press.
Apart from the one-day hunger strike, the unions have asked journalists across the state to stage dharnas, rasta rokos or any form of agitation on April 28 at the district, mandal and town levels. The unions threatened to intensify their agitation from April 29.
–Agencies