Kerala LoP asks Speaker to lift ban on media coverage of Assembly proceedings

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala’s leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan on Wednesday urged Speaker A.N. Shamseer to lift the ban on media coverage of Assembly proceedings.

His request came a week before the monsoon session of the Assembly is scheduled to begin.

“The restriction came with the Covid pandemic when the feed of the proceedings of the Assembly was given by the Sabha TV (run by the Kerala Assembly) to all TV channels, but despite a few earlier requests, and raising of the issue in the floor of the House, there has been no change. Now with all Covid restrictions lifted, the media should be allowed to do their job as before,” said Satheesan.

“The Sabha TV has been covering the proceedings in the Assembly in a partisan manner as the Opposition is completely blanked out and only the treasury bench activities are being aired, which is totally undemocratic,” he said.

He further pointed out that the Assembly proceedings covered by the media are based on the lines of media coverage in the Lok Sabha.

“In the 2005 amendment made by the Lok Sabha Speaker, it specifically states that walkouts, entering the Well of the House and such acts should be telecast as and when it happens. In between, the Speaker also should be shown. All along, the coverage in the Kerala Assembly was like that, but ever since the coverage was exclusively done by Sabha TV, things have gone haywire. So, we request that to be fair, the present ban on the media should be lifted,” he added.

With inputs from IANS