Kerala Union of Journalists to organise protest march against Guv for barring Malayalam channels from press meet

The Kerala Union of Working Journalists has announced that it will organise a protest march to Raj Bhavan against Governor Arif Mohammad for barring two Malayalam channels from his press meet at Kochi on Monday.

"The Kerala Union of Working Journalists will tomorrow organise a protest march to Raj Bhavan against this horrible, undemocratic conduct of the Governor against select media organizations and journalists (those who ask uncomfortable questions)," SR Praveen, a Kerala journalist tweeted.

Earlier on Monday, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan barred two Malayalam channels from his press meeting at Kochi.

The Governor asked the reporters from Kairali News and Media One channels to leave the place and shouted that he will not meet these two channels, accusing them of "masquerading" as political persons.

Asking them to go out, he said "I considered the media as very important. I have always responded to the media but I am not now able to persuade myself to those that masquerade as media. They are not media, they are masquerading as media but are basically political persons.

"There are actually members of a party here. So, if anybody from these channels is attending the press meeting, please leave. I would walk away if there were correspondents from Kairali and Media One. I had categorically mentioned that I would not talk to Kairali and Media One," he added.

The press meet was held at the guest house in Kochi today morning.Earlier on October 24, Raj Bhavan barred four Malayalam channels including both these channels from attending a press meeting of the Governor.

Kairali News is the channel of the ruling CPI (M). Besides, a Malayalam satellite channel Media One is facing a ban from the central government over security clearance issues.

The Supreme Court last week reserved its judgement on the plea of Media One against the ban. In an interim order in March, the SC had allowed the channel to continue its broadcast.

( With inputs from ANI )