Electronic Media and Print Media are the main sources to pass on the information from government to the general public. Over the past decade, Media's influence grew largely, their exclusive stories, sting operations, debates between politicians and political parties have brought some sort of awareness among the general crowd.
As the time progressed, media too started being biased and have openly supported few political parties which could influence the change of guard in the center. In Andhra Pradesh it is the same scenario, political parties itself own media houses and attack other media for publishing stories against the government. This trend started with Sakshi tv which supported Congress and late YSR. After his death, Sakshi took a 'U' turn and as Jagan Mohan Reddy launched a party, it started showing every loophole of Congress party. Later in 2009, when Telangana agitation got intensified there was no support from media and KCR has launched own channel and newspaper.
In agitation moment, news channel TV9 has reportedly backed the United AP slogan and published some features which supported the United AP cause. KCR found TV9 to be biased and when the channel showed him in cartoon character, KCR fumed over this and just gave a call for the Telangana cable operators to block the transmission of TV9. As the moment was alive, the call of KCR worked and for few months the channel was banned in Telangana region. KCR also shares along standing rivalry with ABN AndhraJyothy MD Radha Krishna. We know Radha Krishna is a strong supporter of TDP, its chief and indirectly supports United AP cause too. His news channel, newspaper have carried exclusive stories on TRS party and did not even leave KCR's son KTR in land mafia deal. Later KTR filed a defamation case against the media but it went under the hoods and now nobody knew what happened to that case.
In a fresh controversy, as the Telangana got separated, AndhraJyothy carried an exclusive story about the transport of sand from Andhra Pradesh to Telangana state. The newly formed government as per its knowledge did not issue any statement regarding the taxes to be implemented for the transport of sand but AndhraJyothy reported that the Telangana government is looking to impose high tax on it. In another row, TV9's satirical program Bullet News made few controversial statements on newly elected Telangana MLAs. The legislators who were elected for the first time, find it difficult while taking oath, the channel made some derogatory statements in this regards. This irked the Telangana CM and moved a resolution in the Assembly to take necessary action against the channel and print media that published unclaimed and insulting news.
From Monday morning, TV9 and ABN AndhraJyothy transmission were blocked in Telangana region but it was not a government call. The Telangana MSO association took a decision independently and blocked the telecast of the two channels in Telangana and also warned them to stop such 'anti' campaigns. KCR has once again proved that he is ruling the roast in Telangana by launching a direct attack on the media.
Well the banning and blocking of transmission is not the solution of every issue and it may lead to severe consequences in the future. Firstly media has the freedom to express but it should not take advantage of the freedom. Making funny statements about legislators is wrong but then the channel immediately apologized for its mistake and assured the government that such content and programs will never be repeated. While in AndhraJyothy case, the channel is still silent over the story that it has carried. As the channel faced ban, it launched a direct attack on CM KCR however did not talk about the actual issue that has cause all these disturbance. Media is clearly losing its dignity and being politically inclined is the only reason. The only solution for this fight between political parties and media house is have certain media ethics to bring the best stories that are useful for people rather than his cat and dog fights.
(AW: Vamshi)
