In the wake of the police action against a woman journalist of a leading Malayalam news channel in connection with an alleged fake exam result of the state secretary of the SFI, the student-wing of CPI-M, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has questioned the double standards of the CPI-M over the press freedom.

Terming the case filed against Asianet News Kochi Chief Reporter Akhila Nandakumar for covering a fake mark list story as an example of CPI-M’s hypocrisy on press freedom, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said they (the CPI-M) are vocal about freedom of expression when BBC documentary issue came up. However, when a fake mark list story was reported by a journalist in Kerala, the government under the CPI-M has filed a case against her with conspiracy charges.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan on Tuesday took a dig at CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury, asking whether his remarks accusing the BJP-led Central government of media manipulation were also applicable to his party comrade and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Satheesan said Yechury appeared to be blissfully unaware that Vijayan was also allegedly involved in media manipulation.

The criticism comes in the wake of the police action against Akhila Nandakumar, a reporter of a leading Malayalam news channel in connection with covering a story related to an alleged fake mark list.

Responding to the revelations made by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that the Narendra Modi Government threatened the social media company with a ban and raid of its employees in India if certain tweets about the farmers’ protest were not suppressed, the CPI-M general secretary has tweeted, “The outrageous manner in which the media ecosystem is being manipulated, dissent is intimidated, journalists threatened, abused and jailed on false pretext. No amount of denial by the Modi Government can obfuscate the truth of doctoring media content.”

Sharing the tweet, Opposition leader in Satheesan asked Yechuri whether this is applicable to Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan and his government too. “Mr.Yachuri, is this applicable to Com.Pinarayi and his government too,” he said.

The Kerala Police on Saturday booked Akhila Nandakumar, a reporter with Malayalam news channel Asianet News, on a complaint filed by PM Arsho, state secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI. The complaint was against a news report by Akhila alleging that Arsho, an MA Archaeology student at Maharaja’s College Ernakulam, had passed all his exams without appearing for them. Akhila, who is chief reporter of Asianet News Kochi, has been named the fifth accused in the case.

The police have booked her with 120B (criminal conspiracy), 465 (forgery), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.

In this connection, the Editors’ Guild of India on Tuesday voiced concern over alleged intimidation and harassment of journalists by the CPI-M-led LDF government in Kerala.

Condemning the police action, the Guild said that the action taken in the case is extremely worrisome and urged the Kerala government to immediately withdraw the case. It said raising questions is the duty of the media  persons and to face it with threats and using investigative agencies is against democratic values.

The Editors also voiced concern over alleged intimidation and harassment of  a journalist by Union minister Smriti Irani. It claimed that Irani intimidated a journalist during her visit to her Lok Sabha constituency Amethi on 9 June.