GUWAHATI, January 16: The Assam police last night arrested four senior officials of Doordarshan Kendra, Guwahati, for allegedly fomenting communal and ethnic tension.The four officials are Hiteshwar Medhi, joint director, news, Ramani Malakar, news editor, Pratap Bordoloi, editor, and Debendra Nath Tamuli, producer, news. They have all been arrested under Section 153 A (I).The arrest, according to the Government, was provoked by the Doordarshan officials' ``calculated'' attempt ``to create feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will between the Bodo and the Assamese communities.''The particular telecast, which was part of the Kendra's 7 pm English news bulletin and the 7.30 Assamese news bulletin on January 14, according to the government, was ``prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between the Assamese and the Bodo communities and has started disturbing public tranquility.'' While Bordoloi was picked up at around 11 pm last night, the other three were picked up around midnight and taken to the Geetanagar police station in the city.Doordarshan's deputy director-general P K Singson, who is in charge of the north-eastern region, today filed a bail petition in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup, and the officers were produced before him around 5 pm today.The government said the telecast of the news and visuals in connection with Tuesday night's massacre at village Kekerikuchi in Kamrup district contained ``highly inflammatory words''. However, Singson told The Indian Express that the news was presented as it was ``without any twist or distortion.''City journalists, including Doordarshan and All India Radio employees, gathered at the Guwahati Press Club today, and after condemning the government action by terming it an attempt to gag the media, took out a procession to the Kamrup deputy commissioner's office.The media representatives have resolved to boycott all government functions in the State for three days.The government, which later came out with a lengthy statement, insisted that Doordarshan incited hatred and tension. ``The material telecast included several minutes of visuals of blood-stained bodies, uncovered bodies of dead women, with flies hovering around the wounds. emotionally surcharged words of the telecaster, naming all the persons who had been killed in this incident, including their surnames, which emphasised the upper caste Assamese Hindu identity of the persons killed on the day of Magh Bihu which is one of the most important festivals of Assam,'' the government statement said.
