Andhra Pradesh Cabinet Decided To Empower Departmental Secretaries for a Legal Fight With Media Houses

The Andhra Pradesh government has issued special powers to the departmental secretaries to sue the media houses under defamation if they carried 'baseless' reports.

The state cabinet approved the proposal presented by the Information & Public Relations (I&PR) Minister Perni Venkatramaiah. The Jagan Mohan Reddy government is planning to do so, by citing a Government Order (GO) dated 2007, which gives powers to the Special Commissioner of the I&PR department to file cases under the law.

"The cabinet decided to empower the departmental secretaries to file defamation cases against the media. They can take legal action within 24 hours against the organisation responsible for the news item after ascertaining the veracity of such stories," an official familiar with the development quoted

Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, is presently into a legal battle with media houses TV5 and ABN Andhra Jyothi which are banned in the state.

However, the two media houses approached TDSAT to restore their channels to which the tribunal has ordered the operators to restore the networks.