Ugrappa's notice on TV channel sent to House panel

The Legislative Council on Thursday referred to the House Privileges Committee a notice from a Congress member alleging breach of privilege by a Kannada television news channel.

Congress MLC V S Ugrappa, while making his preliminary submission on the issue, accused BTV of insulting the House and the government by making adverse comments on the discussion held in the Council about “arbitrariness” of the visual media, on Wednesday.

The channel charged the government with instigating the legislators to attack the media for reporting against it, he added.  “When the members (legislators) were drawing the attention of the House on how the media was going awry and defaming elected representatives, the channel reported saying that the media is under attack. The anchor spoke in such a way as to challenge the House. This is an insult to the House,” he charged.

Ugrappa demanded that Council Chairman D H Shankarmurthy summon the owner, the anchor and the reporter of the channel, to the House.

“A section of the media is behaving as if it is supreme. It is deterrent to democracy. It is turning into a clash between the media and the legislature,” he said. He insisted that the issue should be referred to a joint select committee.