Andhra Pradesh police slapped a notice on T News, a news channel owned by the family members of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The copy of the notice has been delivered to Narayana Reddy CEO of the channel last midnight. The notice, delivered by Vizag ACP Ramana, was served under Section 19 of The Cable Television Network (Regularion) Act-1995. The Section deals with Powers to prohibit transmission of certain programs in public interest. When invoked, the act authorizes the officials to prohibit any cable operator from transmitting any program which is not in conformity with prescribed program code and is likely to promote disharmony or feelings of enmity or ill-will between different religious, racial, linguistic and regional groups. The notice, citing a program transmitted at 8.30 PM on June 7, 2015, said the transmission, which carried a purported conversation between AP Chief Minister Naidu and Telangana MLA Elvis Stephenson, had the potential to create hatred among the people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangan. The AP police sought an explanation from T news in three days. Meanwhile, the Channel described the police act as an indirect declaration of war on Telangana. Journalists across the TS have condemned the Andhra Police move as undemocratic.
