Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (MS/JD)

Udupi, May 14: The Udupi District Working Journalists Association submitted an appeal to Dr Arun K, the superintendent of police (SP) of the district on Tuesday, May 14, addressing the inconveniences faced by the media at polling booths during the recent Lok Sabha elections.

In the appeal, the media stated, “Polling was held on April 26 for the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru Lok Sabha constituency and on May 7 in the Byndoor Legislative Assembly constituency, which falls under the Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency. During polling, the media were given passes by the Election Commission (EC) to shoot videos and take photographs at the polling booths. Accordingly, at certain polling booths, cameramen and photographers engaged in video shooting and photography during the casting of votes by celebrities and VIPs. However, they were prevented from doing so by police officers on duty at these booths, obstructing us from carrying out our duties.

“It is inappropriate for certain police officers to prevent us from doing video shooting outside the polling booth, even though passes for this were issued by the EC. Similarly, at rural polling booths, media persons were not allowed to photograph the public standing in line to cast their votes. Please look into this matter and take action to ensure that media persons do not face such inconveniences in the future. Additionally, we request measures to prevent any chaos at the vote counting centers on June 4,” stated the appeal.

In response, Dr Arun stated, “These instructions should have been communicated to the concerned police officers during the training program. Training will be provided to avoid recurrence of the same in the future, and arrangements will be made to prevent any confusion or chaos during the counting of votes.”

The media delegation included President Rajesh Shetty Alevoor, Chief Secretary Nazeer Polya, Treasurer Umesh Marpalli, Secretaries Rahim Ujire and Pramod Suvarna, former President Jayakara Suvarna, committee members Michael Rodrigues and Harish Kunder, Press Club convener Ajit Aradi, and journalists Shashidhar Mastibailu, Deepak Jain, Pundalik Marate, Harish Palechar, Chethan Matapady, Parikshit Shet, Justin D’Silva, Rakshith Belapu, and Nagaraja Rao.