YSR Cong govt empowers secretaries to sue media for false news

The state cabinet, which met here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Jagan, decided to implement government order (No.938) issued on February 20, 2007 and initiate legal action against "defamatory news spread with malafide interest in print, electronic and social media."

The order was issued during late Rajasekhara Reddys (Jagan's father) tenure as chief minister.

Unlike in 2007, the state government has decided to delegate full powers to the secretaries concerned to file appropriate court cases within 24 hours against the organisation for the news item published or telecast or posted in any print, electronic or social media, a cabinet memorandum presented by Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkataramaiah said.

Hitherto, the Information and Public Relations Department Commissioner was empowered to file the cases.

Social media is a new inclusion in the list since it practically did not exist in 2007.

Justifying the decision, the minister said in the memorandum that adverse news would "bring down the morale of the implementing agency, department and officer, which ultimately would lead to suboptimal performance and can hamper the progress of the state."

Referring to the "background", the minister noted that certain print, electronic and social media were "deliberately trying to tarnish the image of the government and government officials" by spreading false news with malafide interest.

Since the respective secretaries have thorough knowledge of the affairs and the wherewithal to judge the veracity of the news, it was decided to empower them to file court cases following due procedures.

"The Cabinet has approved this," Perni Venkataramaiah told PTI after the meeting.

The Editors Guild of India recently said an "unwritten ban" has been imposed by the YSR Congress-led government on two Telugu news channels and asked the state dispensation not to create a situation where the constitutionally mandated freedoms of media representatives are compromised.