When former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress party was in power, reporters from pro-Telugu Desam Party newspapers and media outlets like Eenadu, Andhra Jyoti, ABN and TV5 had complained of receiving life threats from YSRCP leaders for writing negative articles against the Jagan government and exposing various scams.
The situation does not seem to have changed even after the change of government. Now even TDP leaders are threatening Eenadu and Andhra Jyothi reporters to state facts during their field visits.
In the latest episode, TDP MP from Srikalahasti, Bojara Sudheer Reddy, had allegedly threatened dire consequences to a local Eenadu journalist who had written a story on an MLA encouraging the sand mafia in his constituency.
Apparently, Eenadu had carried a story about some political leaders illegally collecting Rs 500 per tractor load of sand from Vikruthammara and Munagalapalem in Elpedu area of Srikalahasti constituency.
TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has maintained that sand is being supplied to consumers free of cost, but MLAs are allegedly taking bribes from consumers for transporting sand.
Apparently infuriated by the report, Sudheer Reddy called up the reporter and threatened him with the end if he ever wrote a similar article against him again.
“Why didn’t you write such articles during the YSRCP government? If you continue to write articles like this, it will be the end,” he warned.
On Saturday, Eenadu reporters published another story narrating how state assemblymen had threatened him without even giving him a chance to explain the facts.
Needless to say, the report caught the eye of the Chief Minister, who immediately called Bojala and sought an explanation. He warned the state Congress leader to stop indulging in fee collection on sand supply and questioned why he had threatened a journalist belonging to a pro-TDP daily.
Sources said Bojala realised he had created trouble and tried to explain to Naidu but Naidu did not give him the opportunity.
