Porn panel, who are you probing?

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The Karnataka media is in uproar as for the second day running, the D.V. Sadananda Gowda government appointed panel, set up to look into ‘Porngate’ in Karnataka has targeted the journalists who played watchdog.

The panel blamed the media rather than the ministers whom the cameramen filmed violating house rules by watching porn on a mobile phone while the Assembly was in session.

The question of why the Speaker did not file a police complaint against them is being widely debated.

Instead on Thursday, the four-member House Committee set up by the Speaker and whose ability to be unbiased has been called into question as it remains an all BJP panel tasked to examine wrong-doing by their fellow BJP legislators, set to grilling television journalists to ascertain 'if there was any vested interest' in exposing the MLAs.

In a set of five queries posed to the deposing journalists, the latter sought to know: “the purpose for which the journalists had procured entry passes to the Assembly; if television channels felt they had captured visuals that were both ‘unnecessary’ and ‘indecent’; if the media had any motives behind the expose.”

It questioned the ethics of the media in telecasting the ‘unparliamentary’ visuals all through the day without seeking prior permission of the Assembly Speaker, saying telecasting 'uncivilized' visuals amounted to violation of the Rules (16, 17 and 20) governing the press gallery inside the House.

Freedom under fire

“I was grilled for nearly one hour between 12 noon and 1 pm on Wednesday. The panel wanted to know whether the channel had obtained the permission of the Speaker to record and telecast such a footage. I made it clear to the panel that channel is very much answerable to the ministry of Information and Broadcasting and not the House Committee. We telecast the incident based on our right to freedom of speech and expression.” — Mr Hameed Palya, Editor, Suvarna News 24X7.