Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the state Assembly on Monday that action against Malayalam news channel Asianet News was for airing a 'fake' report on drug abuse among school students.
Opposition Congress staged a walkout from the house alleging that the government was taking vindictive action against the media for reporting against the ruling CPM and the government.
Speaker A N Shamseer denied permission for an adjournment motion on the police case against Asianet News and raid at the channel's office in Kozhikode on Sunday. The police action was on the basis of a petition filed by left front MLA P V Anvar.
Replying to the adjournment motion notice given by Congress MLA P C Vishnunath, the Chief Minister said that the channel allegedly faked a video using a minor girl in November 2022 and mixed it with the statements given by another minor girl in an interview to the channel in August 2022 on many school girls being trapped in drug rackets and being sexually abused. Hence it did not deserve any protection of media freedom. Moreover, a police probe into the statement of the minor girl in August that many of her schoolmates were trapped was also found to be untrue.
"The police action on Asianet News could not be compared with that of the BJP government's recent action against the BBC. It was the Congress and the BJP that used to take vindictive actions against the media," Vijayan said referring to incidents during the Emergency.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan said that the hasty police action of raiding the channel's office and the complainant MLA's advance warning on social media that the channel would soon land in trouble made it clear that the actions against the channel were planned. The channel had been frequently reporting unlawful acts in the CPM and its nexus with anti-socials and gold smugglers, he said.
He also said that the channel could not be accused of faking the video as it was not supposed to reveal the identity of minor victims in POCSO cases.
Meanwhile, police have summoned the channel authorities who were arraigned in the case.
Asianet News executive editor Sindhu Sooryakumar said in a statement that the channel would coperate with any fair investigation.