HYDERABAD: The Telangana police on Sunday booked three journalists of separate Telugu news channels for allegedly publishing fake news. In all cases, the news was related to COVID-19 and involved government officials.
In the first case, the Neredmet police registered cases against two journalists for allegedly airing news claiming that a person from Neredmet, who tested positive for coronavirus, organised a food distribution programme recently.
It was also alleged that staffers of Neredmet police station participated in it. Neredmet Inspector A Narsimha Swamy clarified that the person hadn’t distributed food and no police personnel were involved.
In another case, Nirmal police booked a journalist for reporting that samples of Collector Musharraf Ali Faruqui and other officials were sent for Covid testing. The police said the claim was fake. , Telangana Union of Working Journalists condemned the police action.