Thiruvananthapuram: Pressure is building on Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the Left Democratic Front government as lawyers in the state have been preventing media persons from reporting from court premises in different parts of the state.
On Wednesday, the latest episode in the lawyers-journalists stand-off played out in Kollam, when the principal sessions court sentenced ‘Adu’ (goat) Antony, who was convicted in the murder of policeman Maniyan Pillai, to life imprisonment.
Despite the fact that the court was giving its verdict on such a sensational case, lawyers did not permit media persons from entering the court premises.
The feud between lawyers and scribes was triggered earlier this month when media carried reports about the arrest of government pleader, Dhanesh Mathew Manjooran for allegedly molesting a woman in Kochi. Manjooran has contested the allegation.
Lawyers turned belligerent against media persons in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram after that. In Thiruvananthapuram, lawyers pasted a poster on the windows of the media room, which read ‘No entry for the fourth gender’.
When media persons asked chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan about their being shut out of court reporting by advocates, Vijayan said he would “respond later”.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president, V.M. Sudheeran said “the state governor must intervene to solve the issue of journalists being blocked from reporting court proceedings”. Kerala governor P. Sathasivam is a former chief justice of India’s apex court.
“Despite the chief minister’s intervention, media persons have not been able to report smoothly from court premises. This shows the failure of the administration”, Sudheeran said.
Commenting on Pinarayi Vijayan’s statement that he would “respond later” to the stand-off between lawyers and journalists, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said, “Vijayan is a chief minister who runs away from the media”.
Meanwhile, a local media released an eye witness statement alleging that the government pleader Dhanesh Mathew Manjooran had attempted to molest a woman in Kochi. The media house released a video in which the witness says Manjooran had tried to flee when the woman raised an alarm, and that people caught him and handed him over to the police.
