Cong targets Modi over press freedom

Accusing Modi of “destroying” everything that he talks about “protecting”, he said Modi “does exactly the opposite of whatever he says. He talks of freedom of press but attacks the media.

“Modi says Parliament will have to be freed from criminals. Yet he embraces criminals. The biggest criminal is Amit Shah, who is BJP's campaign in-charge for Uttar Pradesh,” Sibal charged.

Mentioning specific instances in which sedition charges were slapped against journalists in Gujarat, he asked whether a case of sedition should not be lodged against Amit Shah for describing Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh as a den of terrorists.

Sibal said that a Hindi news channel, which was going to telecast Tehelka's sting operation that “exposed involvement of top BJP leaders” in communal violence in 2002, was stopped from airing the programme in 2007.

“In 2006, the editor, circulation manager and a computer manager of a newspaper in Surat were arrested on the charges of sedition after it published an article on the state governments' mismanagement in releasing waters from the Ukai dam leading to the flooding in Surat. The editor was released after 39 days in jail after he apologised.