Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010953750300.htm

Karnataka

Handcuffing of journalist condemned

Staff Correspondent

Chitradurga: The Chitradurga District Active Journalists’ Forum has condemned the handcuffing of editor-in-chief of Kannada daily Karavali Ale B.V. Seetaram in connection with a defamation case.

In a press statement here on Thursday, the forum termed the act of the police as inhuman and atrocious.

The police had misbehaved with the senior journalist by treating him like a criminal and this was condemnable, the forum said.

Looking at the action of the police, it seems as if they were acting at the behest of some influential people who were against the freedom of press.

The forum deplored the reported statement of Home Minister V.S. Acharya that he was not aware of the journalist’s arrest.

The Home Ministry had not taken any action to punish the offenders and to find out the truth behind the arrest, the statement said.

If the Home Minister could not control such “anti-people” actions, then he should not continue in the post, the forum added.