Hyderabad: A journalist covering the DSC candidates protest at Osmania University (OU) was manhandled by the police while he was in the campus on Wednesday. This is not the first time that reporters have faced issues in the campus, especially after the administration began restricting entry into OU.
The journalist, working with Zee Telugu, was filming the protest when two sub-inspectors of the Osmania University (OU) police station caught hold of him and dragged him to a police vehicle. Visuals of the incident show the police bundled him in the police vehicle and shifted to the police station.
The Inspector of the local Osmania University (OU) police station allegedly threatened the journalist to delete the videos filmed by him. The incident evoked sharp criticism from several quarters. Recently, the police there was also seen manhandling a reporter of TV9 channel and forcing him into a jeep.
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Former Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) minister Harish Rao strongly condemned the police action and said the police were attacking journalists. “Is it wrong for them to cover the news as part of their duty? Arresting journalists and forcibly taking them to police stations is a violation of media rights and freedom. We warn the government to change its autocratic attitude towards journalists. We demand the immediate release of the detained journalists,” Harish Rao posted on X.
While the Congress government is being criticised, it may also be noted that the police under the BRS government has been accused of allowing the police to be emboldened and restrict journalists from doing their job.
