A day after CBI froze the accounts of Sakshi newspaper and Indira TV, owned by Kadapa MP Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, in connection with a disproportionate assets case against him, the state government has issued an order stopping release of advertisements to the newspaper and the channel.
Citing the chargesheet filed by CBI against Jagati Publications, owned by Jagan's Sakshi group, state information and public relations commissioner R. V. Chandravadan issued an order late last night asking state government departments, agencies, public sector undertakings, corporations and organisations to ‘withhold releasing of advertisements and notifications’ with immediate effect, ‘in public interest.’
"It has come to the notice of the government that the CBI has filed a chargesheet against M/s Jagati Publications (Private) Limited, publishers of Sakshi Telugu News Daily and TV Channel on March 31, 2012. Government, after careful examination of the matter in public interest, has decided to withhold releasing of advertisements, notifications, etc," Chandravadan said.
The ban on releasing advertisements to Sakshi Telugu daily and television channel would be in force till charges against them are cleared, Chandravadan added in the order.
Earlier, the then government, headed by Jagan's father Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had issued an order on April 24, 2008 empanelling Sakshi daily for issue of government advertisements, by relaxing the rules.
As a part of its investigation into the Jagan's disproportionate assets case, CBI seized over 46 files related to advertisements to Sakshi from the I&PR Department.
The Journalists' Union leaders in Andhra Pradesh yesterday termed the development as an "attack on freedom of press".