It was a great honour that the 11th edition of Metropolis Meet is being hosted by Hyderabad and 2000 delegates from nearly 40 countries are attending this 5 day meet starting from 6th October. The entire country is looking towards Hyderabad now and media from all over the world is enthusiastic and excited to cover the event. Little did the 100+ reporters from print and electronic media who reached the venue (HICC Madhapur) know that they would be denied entry and be transported to another venue which is 1.5 kms away where they had to watch video streaming of the Metropolis Meet (which is not live program anyway).
This came as a shocker to many because the media wasn’t informed earlier about the ban on media’s entry into the venue. This move of KCR’s government is seen as a strategical and deliberate decision taken by KCR. The reason behind is simple and apparent. After KCR lashed out on two media houses alleging them for taking anti Telangana stand, an unofficial ban is lingering on the heads of the two channels from T’MSOs. Since then the media persons of these two channels have been attending meetings with black ribbons tied to their mouths to mark their protest.
In this scenario, KCR’s government is worried that these type of protests may cause inconvenience and embarassment to T government. How long can KCR avoid media? His earlier comments on media, “Break the necks and bury media 10 kilometre deep into the earth…” invited a lot of flak from all media bodies all over the country and even US media watch dog too reported condemning KCR’s hate speech on media. When not only the whole Nation but also the whole world is watching KCR’s stance on media, how long can KCR go like this? Is this really possible for any developing State to try to grow curbing the freedom of media?
