HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy yesterday said journalists were not above the law and asked them to stop interviewing Maoist guerrillas, which he said was a crime.
Shocked and anguished at the killing of senior Congress legislator C Narsi Reddy and eight others by Maoists on Independence Day, he said journalists interviewing Maoists were committing a "major crime".
Talking to newsmen here, he said interviewing Maoists was a "culpable offence". "Suppose a journalist interviews some criminal wanted by law, then as per existing law that itself is a culpable offence. That should not be done," said Reddy, who is popularly known as YSR.
A reporter had asked him why the government had failed to protect Narsi Reddy when a Maoist leader in an interview to the media had threatened to target him.
The chief minister said: "Your going to interview them (Maoists) is a big crime. Protecting the law and the constitution is not the duty of policemen alone but you journalists who can mould public opinion also have this responsibility."
