CHENNAI: Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) Secretary Durai Vaiko on Thursday regretted the incident at his party's event in Sathur on Wednesday, where MDMK cadres allegedly assaulted journalists.
Durai Vaiko, the son of MDMK General Secretary Vaiko, stated that his party firmly believes that for democracy to thrive, freedom of the press must be upheld and protected.
"Yesterday evening, a gathering of MDMK cadre from the Nellai Zone was held in Sattur. Over 3,000 people had gathered, filling the hall and leaving thousands seated outside. Vaiko began his speech at 8 pm. About an hour into his speech, there was a power outage. Some attendees from inside the hall got up and stepped outside. After a short while, power was restored and Vaiko resumed his speech," Durai Vaiko said in his statement, explaining the incident.
"At that moment, upon noticing that media personnel were recording the situation, Vaiko remarked,”There are thousands of dedicated party workers listening outside. Why not go and capture that?" the statement added.
Following this, when the journalists continued to film, Vaiko suggested they leave if they wished. At that point, a few party workers reacted angrily. What transpired after that was unfortunate, he said in his statement.
Durai Vaiko claimed that in MDMK's 31-year history, party workers have never behaved disrespectfully toward journalists.