Thiruvananthapuram: Eight TV journalists from Kerala-based television channels had a bitter taste of the Karnataka police's intolerance towards the agitation against Citizenship Amendment Act when they were arrested while trying to report the post-mortem proceedings of two persons killed in police firing in Mangalore on Thursday.
The reporting crew members, including cameramen, were arrested for failure to produce accreditation credentials from the Karnataka government. The media personnel only had ID cards issued by their news organisations or authorised agencies of the Kerala government.
The arrested media persons included representatives Asianet, Mathrubhoomi, News18 and a few other television channels.
The Karnataka police also seized the mobile phones and camera equipment belonging to the crew, alleging that they were part of a 50-member team from Kerala who had come to Mangalore to foment trouble.
Mangalore police action has to be seen against the backdrop of a claim by Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai the trouble in Mangalore was caused by people who came from Kerala.
K’taka police chief Harsha asked Kerala reporters to vacate the area immediately and later bundled them into a van. They showed ID cards, but police said they were fake and took them to a local police station where they were detained for over six hours.
The town has been under curfew following Thursday's violence during protest marches taken out in solidarity with the students of Delhi's Jamia Millia University, who had been roughed up by the Delhi police although they were not even part of the agitating groups. The police action triggered nation-wide protests and the Mangalore rallies were part of this.
The arrested newspersons were released following the intervention of Kerala chief secretary, who got in touch with his counterparts in Karnataka. The Mangalore police action evoked strong protests in Kerala, cutting across party lines.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan strongly condemned the incident and decried the attempt to portray journalists as troublemakers and their news gathering equipment as weapons.
“The onslaught on media freedom is a fascist mind-set. There must be strong public sentiment against this," Pinarayi said.
He said state government would make all efforts to ensure the safety of journalists from Kerala travelling to Mangalore for reporting.
State industries minister EP Jayarajan described the reported statement by the Karnataka Home Minister as 'highly irresponsible'.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said the media was only doing its job. "What the Mangalore police did is to gag the media and this is not acceptable in a democracy," he said.
The TV reporters and cameramen were driven to the border town of Thalappadi, where they were 'handed over' to the Kerala police personnel. The seized mobile phones and equipment were also given to Kerala police.
The newspersons alleged they were treated like criminals and denied even the basic courtesies of being served drinking water, although they were in custody for not less than seven hours. They were forced to sit on the floor of the bus in which they were transported to the border.
As per Union Minister D Sadananda Gowda and local police, there were intelligence reports miscreants had entered Mangaluru in the guise of reporters and were fomenting trouble.
Meanwhile, Kerala govt said it has ordered a stay on all activities in the NPR in the state considering 'apprehensions' of public that it would lead to NRC in the wake of the controversial citizenship act.
