Journalist union urges Guv to see gag order withdrawn

Vijayawada: The leaders of Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) met Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan at Raj Bhavan here on Thursday and requested him to direct the state government to cancel the government order GO No 2430 which authorises officials of various department to take action on media if they perceive the news was not true.

They said that the GO would suppress the rights of journalists and their liberty. They explained the Governor the government orders and problem they could create for the media. They said that the then government led by former Chief Minister late YS Rajasekhar Reddy introduced the GO No 938 but it was not implemented following the requests of their union.

But now the state government issued orders to implement the same GO by giving powers to secretaries of the various government departments. The GO would be harmful to democracy and fundamental rights of the people, they lamented.

They also said that all the Editors, senior journalists, various political parties and people's organisations were opposing the government orders. The Governor assured them to pursue the issue.

IJU vice-president Ambati Anjaneyulu, committee member Alapati Suresh Kumar, APUWJ president I V Subba Rao, general secretary Chandu Janardhan, senior leaders Nalli Dharma Rao, Nimmaraju Chalapathi Rao and Chava Ravi were among those who met the Governor.