CHENNAI: The TVK government came under fire after it barred media from covering the Vettri Tamil Nadu Investment Conclave 2026 held at a private hotel in Chennai.
The Chennai Press Club, in a statement, condemned the blanket exclusion of journalists from the conclave as unprecedented in the state’s administrative history.
“Denying journalists permission to attend events funded by public tax money is an act of suppressing press freedom. Insisting that only the information provided by the government should be reported amounts to censorship of the news,” it said.
The press club noted that reporters have also been barred from a string of recent public events involving Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, including a National Handloom Day function, a metro rail station event, and a constituency visit, and rejected the government’s stated grounds of space constraints and security as inconsistent with that broader pattern.
The press club has called on Minister for Information and Publicity Rajmohan, and the CM himself, to ensure journalists are granted access to government events going forward, framing the issue as a marker of administrative transparency more broadly.TNIE was unable to reach Rajmohan.
Meanwhile, PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss told reporters at Chennai airport that there should be transparency in government events.
Only 24 MoUs are new: Rajaa
Former industries minister Dr TRB Rajaa on Thursday said of the total 97 MoUs, roughly 70 trace back to companies expanding existing operations or to leads already in the pipeline before the TVK government took office. He said only about 24 MoUs could be considered new or potentially new