Shoe-bitten Cong to monitor journalists

Journalist Jarnail Singh’s shoe-chucking act seems to have forced the Congress to change not only two of its Lok Sabha candidates from Delhi but also the way the press conferences are held, reports Aurangzeb Naqshbandi.

Journalist Jarnail Singh’s shoe-chucking act seems to have forced the Congress to change not only two of its Lok Sabha candidates from Delhi but also the way the press conferences are held.

HT Image

The party’s media department has started video monitoring of journalists, besides recording the entire proceedings of press briefings at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters at 24, Akbar Road.

This, according to a Congress office-bearer, is to keep a watch on “unruly and unwanted elements” present at the press conferences. The office bearer, not authorised to speak to the media, told HT on the condition of anonymity that the step had been taken in the wake of Tuesday’s shoe attack on Home Minister P Chidambaram.

“We have started video-graphing of the entire press briefings. Pictures of journalists will be taken and this would be reviewed regularly. We will also be able to identify non-journalists attending these press conferences,” he said.

AICC media department secretary Tom Vadakkan told HT the press briefings were being videographed to enable Internet users to watch these on the web. However, earlier journalists were not part of these recording and the footage was limited to the person addressing the media.

Asked about the videographing of journalists, Vadakkan said pictures of only those mediapersons who ask questions at the press briefings would be taken to “give a feel of the press conferences.”