Chennai, Nov 09: Various journalists' unions here would observe a protest fast today condemning the Tamil Nadu Assembly's order of 15 days of simple imprisonment to five senior staff of 'The Hindu' and the editor of Tamil daily 'Murasoli' on charges of breach of privilege.
The protest call was given yesterday by four journalists' bodies, including Madras Union of Journalists and Press Club.
Rajya Sabha MP and veteran journalist Cho Ramaswmay, N Ram, editon-in-chief of 'The Hindu', and T N Gopalan, chief of bureau, 'The New Indian Express', were among those who addressed the gathering.
The working president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, E V K S Elangovan, condemned the incident and urged the central government to "dismiss" the state government. "By such actions, the government had buried democracy in the state". The Congress would join the proposed 'human chain' protest slated for November 12 in the state, he said.
Condemning the Assembly's decision, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy said anything objectionable written in the media could always, in a democracy, be rebutted by a statement by the aggrieved party.



In Nagapattinam, CPI state unit secretary R Nallakannu said in a democratic set up, no government had taken such harsh steps against newspaper organisations.


Bureau Report