Elements in electronic media spreading false propaganda will be crushed: Home Minister

Mumbai: As the tirade against the media's election coverage continues, in a shocking admission, Union Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today claimed at a party function in Solapur that the government had learnt of a "nasty campaign" by a section of the electronic media and that these elements spreading false propaganda will be "crushed."

"Certain elements in the media orchestrate 'nasty designs'. Since I'm also in charge of the intelligence wing, I know where this is coming from. We have been working silently to place checks on them, but there was a campaign from them over the past four months. We are now going to crush these elements in the electronic media spreading false propaganda," Mr Shinde said, as party workers clapped in appreciation.

This comes shortly after the Editors Guild released a statement slamming the attack on the media, appealing to political leaders not to resort to "vague, unsubstantiated charges of corrupt motives and abuses when refuting, questioning or criticising the media and keep the public discourse civil and within reasonable bounds."

The Guild also objected to statements by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal and former Army Chief VK Singh.

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"It is 'distressing' to find a person like General VK Singh using the term 'presstitutes' to describe journalists who wrote a story on the movement of army units causing concern to the government. The remarks are "unbecoming of a former chief of the Indian Army," the statement said.

"It is equally disquieting to find Arvind Kejriwal attributing corrupt motives to the media that were critical of him and charging media with being pressured into ignoring him without coming up with specific details or material to substantiate such charges," the Editors Guild said.

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Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar too is reported to have attacked the media over the weekend, accusing many journalists of doing opposition-sponsored paid news reporting. "What is a reporter's salary...How much does a news reader earn? Maybe 25,000 (rupees). They are mostly graduates. They are not great thinkers...intellectuals. They write news how they understand it," Mr Parrikar reportedly said.