Pratap Simha who defended fake news editor is part of Press Council
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cancelled his own government’s controversial order that categorically stated journalists would be punished for generating fake news and said that the matter should be addressed only by the Press Council of India.
However, the Editors Guild while acknowledging the Prime Minister’s withdrawal of the fake news order said it was "deeply disturbed" at the government's selection of the Press Council.
The Press Council, which has limited powers, was reconstituted by the government on March 16.
Among the members nominated by the Lok Sabha is Pratap Sinha, a BJP MP from Karnataka, who defended the founder-editor of Postcard News Mahesh Hegde arrested for fake news last week.
— Pratap Simha (@mepratap) March 29, 2018 ">
Today morning Coward Congress Govt (Karnataka) arrested @mvmeet Mahesh Vikram Hegde under unconnected IT act 66, that too by using CCB! Shame on you @INCKarnataka. pic.twitter.com/SZGUJKsfzi
— Pratap Simha (@mepratap) March 29, 2018
Hegde was arrested for falsely claiming in a social media post on March 18 that a Jain monk from Karnataka had got injured after being attacked by a Muslim youth. It was found that the monk had been injured in a road accident.
However, Simha was one of those BJP leaders who tweeted in Hegde’s support.
Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde and BJP MP Maheish Girri were other party leaders who tweeted in support of Mahesh Hegde.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
