Naidu degraded media, says Dharmana

Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has no moral right to talk about the freedom of press, as he has brought down the respectability of the media in public.

This was alleged by former minister and senior MLA of YSR Congress party Dharmana Prasada Rao.

“Naidu does not have any moral right to talk on freedom of the press. He has misused the media to cover up his misdeeds. The TDP leaders had looted the state during the five years of Naidu’s regime,” he said.

The former minister said chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had great respect in the media and believed in freedom of press.

“He is only trying to counter the attempts of a section of media which is conspiring to defame his government. He only wants to counter such attempts through legal recourse,” Dharmana said.

He said the Jagan government had only brought out a GO seeking to take legal action against the media which publish baseless stories.

“It is just a GO. Not a single case has been filed against any media house till now. Can the TDP chief show any evidences for his allegations?” he asked.

On the other hand, there were several instances of Naidu intimidating the media and troubling them during his regime, he alleged.

“Even though the yellow media had written positive stories on Naidu describing his rule as fantastic, the people have rejected it because they know the facts,” Dharmana said.