Thinkers want Governor to help arrested journalist

A few progressive thinkers in Bangalore on Friday met Governor H R Bhardwaj at Raj Bhavan on Friday and sought his intervention in getting the cases filed against journalist Naveen Soorinje withdrawn.

Baraguru Ramachandrappa, G K Govinda Rao, T Surendra Rao, S G Siddaramaiah and others in their memorandum to the Governor stated that Soorinje, a journalist working for a private Kannada news channel, was only discharging his duties when the attack on men and women attending a birthday party in a home stay in Mangalore took place in July this year.

The memorandum stated that Soorinje was in no way associated with the perpetrators of the attack, but after a tip off by an outside source, had rushed to the place of the incident to cover it as part of his duty as journalist.

“It is due to the responsible coverage of Soorinje and his colleagues that the people came to know of the heinous act of the group involved in the incident... We strongly feel that the act of foisting a false report by the police smacks of an attempt to silence the freedom of the press,” the memorandum states.

They have also sought suitable action against the police officers responsible for the inclusion of Soorinje in the charge-sheet.