Centre orders Assam govt. to take action against four media houses

Dimapur, April 18 (EMN): The Union Home Ministry has directed the Assam state administration to take action against a few media organizations including TV news channels and a news portal for allegedly propagating militant ideologies through their platforms and provoking the youth to join militancy.

According to TNT, sources from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Union Information Technology Ministry has ordered a probe on four media outlets in the state for their alleged role in response to the complaint filed by a rights body, Legal Rights Observatory (LRO).

The MHA ordered Assam Home Secretary, Ashutosh Agnihotri and Assam police DGP, Kulashar Saikia to investigate these media houses and their owners for spreading militant ideologies and helping them in getting fresh recruitment for the militant organisations in the region.

In their complaint, the LRO alleged that during the recent protest in entire Northeast region over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill issue, many media houses from the state reported that banned outfit ULFA has started a fresh recruitment drive in the State. They seemed the investigation of the four media organizations in the state and also a probe to investigate their financial transactions, sources of income and possible flow of funds from foreign intelligence agencies and banned militant outfits.