HDK curbs media movement in Vidhana Soudha, faces flak

BENGALURU: In a fresh jolt to press freedom, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has come up with a tool to restrict the movement of the media inside Vidhana Soudha — the state secretariat building — claiming it was intended to rein in brokers and middlemen.
“I’ve asked officials to be alert about those involved in brokering, who are misleading the people.To avoid unlawful activities, we have said there should be certain restrictions on some people, including the media,” Kumaraswamy told reporters on Tuesday.

The CM issued a verbal instruction to the director general’s (DG) office to make separate enclosures for the media to allow ministers, legislators and other secretariat officials to address the media. The issue came to light when security personnel at Vidhana Soudha refused to allow the media to move around in the corridors of power on Tuesday.
About the restriction, Kumaraswamy cited police inputs regarding security, as also increase in the number of people visiting every day, besides complaints about inconvenience caused to ministe rs and officials to carry out their work as reasons for the move. “Some brokers are found moving around the corridors of Vidhana Soudha and have been captured by CCTV. We want to prevent such people from entering the corridors of power,” he added.
Vidhana Soudha police security sources said the CM’s office has laid down the standard operating procedure (SOP) about the movement of mediapersons inside the secretariat. As per the SOP, after entering Vidhana Soudha, media personnel should stay put in the press room on the third floor.
The competent authority is identifying a place inside Vidhana Soudha for press briefings. Media personnel are also not allowed to access the offices of ministers and officials without appointment.
“Television journalists coming to Vidhana Soudha gatecrash into ministers’ offices to get soundbites and create unnecessary controversies. The CM wanted to avoid it in the backdrop of negative publicity his government is getting of late,” a source in the CM’s office said.
Kumaraswamy has been increasingly appearing hostile to journalists after he became CM. Entry of journalists inside the CM’s residence and office had been strictly barred earlier too. He recently abused TV journalists when they sought his comments at the entrance of a five-star hotel.
Ahead of assembly polls in Karnataka, Kumaraswamy had announced that if elected, he would open the corridors of power to all people, including the common man, without any security inhibitions.