Govt curbing media freedom: AAP MP Bhagwant Singh Mann

AAP MP Bhagwant Singh Mann

There has been a “media emergency” in Punjab for long, AAP MP Bhagwant Singh Mann said on Thursday. Addressing a press conference, Mann alleged that after some sections of the mainstream media, the “noose around social media was also being tightened by the SAD-BJP government” and freedom to speak and write was being “curbed”.

“Recent examples of such cases are of (journalists) Kanwar Sandhu and Baltej Pannu,” Mann said. Accusing ruling government of indulging in “high-handedness to curb the freedom of media”, Mann said Pannu was “arrested in a hurry as if he was a dacoit.” “Why was a similar urgency not shown in Behbal Kalan (police firing in which two persons were killed), Channu and Abohar (in two incidents, two girls were mowed down by buses owned by an Akali leader),” Mann said.

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Asked what solution the AAP party had to restore media freedom, Mann said, “The solution is February 2017,” referring to the year in which Punjab goes to polls. Responding to the same query, Shergill said, “We are preparing a red book. We will act against all those involved in such criminal acts.”