THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day A day after the government restricted media from entering the Secretariat premises, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said no instructions have been given to ban media. He, however, added that media should impose a self protocol. He was responding to questions on security personnel restricting the media from entering the Secretariat compound on Tuesday when retired judge P S Antony came to submit the Commission report on honey trap involving former minister A K Saseendran. The Chief Minister’s Office has given no instructions to stop media from entering the Secretariat, Pinarayi said. When the issue came to his attention, he enquired about it and no such instructions were issued. He promised to look into what happened in the issue.
“There was no need for letting the media to cover the Commission handing over the report,” he said. He pointed at what happened last time when another commission - the Justice Sivarajan-led Solar Commission - submitted its report before the Chief Minister. Security personnel had found it difficult to control the media that time.
Pinarayi Vijayan, who has been drawing flak for keeping the media away on many occasions, especially for his recent outbursts against the media, also had a piece of advice for the media. “The government has not given any instructions to impose restrictions on the media. But the media should introspect on the recent trend of seeking ‘forced response’.
The media should impose a self protocol,” the Chief Minister said. Referring to his experiences outside the state, Pinarayi pointed out that in other states there are designated spaces where the visual media waits for a person to come and speak to them.
They don’t create any commotion. If the person wants to speak, he will come to the media and speak. Pinarayi also pointed at the need for the media to keep outside of hospitals so as to avoid creating disturbance to others.
No intelligence report on threats
Responding to questions on whether he was facing threat to his life, Pinarayi said as of now there’s no intelligence report on threats to his life. “There have been threats all through my life. I’ve never stayed away from attending public functions due to s u c h threats,” he said in a lighter vein.