No direction given to police to prevent media: district judge

Kozhikode: The Kozhikode district judge Saturday clarified that there was no direction to police to prevent the media from entering the court premises.

The clarification was provided to the High Court registrar general.

Meanwhile, Binuraj, the Asianet correspondent, who was taken into custody by the police and released later, said they demand appropriate action against the inspector and two police officials who acted rashly towards them.

Recounting the events, Binuraj told reporters: "We had just arrived in the compound of the magistrate court. Soon after the local sub-inspector came menacingly towards us and said they are taking us and the driver of our vehicle to the police station. They behaved with us as if we were terrorists. In the station too they behaved very badly with us."

Former lawmaker, advocate and fellow traveller of the CPI-M, Sebastian Paul said the current situation in the state reminds him of the scenario in 1975 (Emergency).

"The sequence of events happening in our state does not augur well and it's time the state government acts," said Paul.

John Brittas, who heads Kairali TV channel - the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-backed TV channel and is also media advisor to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, deplored the events at Kozhikode.

"This should not have happened; the media should get the space and the freedom to work," said Brittas.

Leading lawyer Udayabhanu said to his knowledge there has been no written order from the Kerala High Court to ban the entry of media personnel into the courts.

Relations between the media and the lawyer community in Kerala have gone from bad to worse since the past 10 days after trouble first began in the Kerala High Court premises in Kochi.

Tension between both factions also erupted in the state capital, and a few days ago the lawyer community prevented the media at Kollam from covering the judgement of a controversial murder case.