Journalists Boycott 70th Independence Day Celebrations
Mangaluru: The district Journalists staged a protest by boycotting the 70th Independence Day at the Nehru Maidan here on August 15.
Journalists were not happy with the police when one of the journalists was not allowed to enter the ground for coverage. After some time, one of the police officers requested the photojournalists not to cross the line and enter the area marked for the march-past.
One of the senior photographers being upset with the attitude of the police requested all photographers and videographers to boycott the programme. When the Minister entered the venue, the photographers took him to task and warned that they would boycott the programme if they were not allowed to click photographs like they had clicked all these years.
Speaking to mangalorean.com Deputy commissioner Dr Jagadeesha said, “I don’t know what happened. When I entered the ground, some of the photojournalists came to me and said that they will boycott the programme if they are not allowed to click the photographs. I requested them not to go and click the photographs. But they did not listen to me and left the ground.
Speaking to mangalorean.com Minister Ramanath Rai said, “We are celebrating the 70th Independence day. We should not take this minor issue seriously. Police officers are doing their duty and if any police officer has asked the journalists not to cross the marked line, there is nothing wrong in it. But when they came to me, I told them to click the photographs, I even requested them to stay back for the celebrations. We are not celebrating any private programme, we need to be patriotic and take part in the Independence day celebrations”, he said.
After the programme, Minister Ramanath Rai met the journalists who were protesting outside the ground and spoke to them.
