'Andhra Jyoti' office attacked

The office of the Telugu daily 'Andhra Jyoti' was attacked by an alleged dalit activist. Earlier, the police had arrested the editor and two journalists of the Telugu daily after a complaint was lodged by the Madiga Reservation Samiti alleging their president had been abused on the basis of caste. Mediamen hold protest rallies in AP Enraged over the arrest of an editor and two other journalists in Andhra Pradesh, mediapersons today held protest rallies across the state and boycotted the press conference of Home Minister K Jana Reddy who assured to order a CID probe into the incident.

In an unprecedented late night action, the police went to the office of leading Telugu daily 'Andhra Jyothi' here and took into custody its Editor K Srinivas and two journalists Vamsi and Srinivas under the stringent Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The arrest followed a complaint by a Dalit organisation alleging that the staff of the newspaper had insulted its leader and burnt his effigy while holding a protest rally last month. Meanwhile, the arrested journalists were shifted to Chanchalguda jail after a local magistrate remanded them to 14-day judicial custody.

The trouble had started following publication of a lead story in the second largest circulated daily last month that criticised unnamed Dalit leaders and their organisations for their "blackmailing tactics". The story triggered a violent protest by activists of Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) who attacked the daily's office on May 26.

The arrests, termed by the opposition and journalists' bodies as an attack on media freedom, evoked widespread condemnation. The members of Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) today organised sit-ins across the state demanding immediate release of the journalists of Andhra Jyothi. BJP expresses solidarity The BJP state unit expressed its solidarity with the journalists and demanded release of the arrested editor and two reporters of Telugu daily, 'Andhra Jyothi'. The action of the police reminded the emergency days and asked the state government to withdraw cases against them, a party release said. (PTI)