NEW DELHI: Putting a premium on the right to free speech and expression, Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of Sakshi TV anchor K Srinivasa Rao, who was held by Andhra police for abetting alleged derogatory and defamatory statements by a panelist on his live show on Amaravati. Justices Mishra and Manmohan said, “Rao has not made the statement. His journalistic participation in a live TV show deserves to be protected, so as that of his fundamental right to free speech. Rao shall be released on bail on conditions to be imposed by the trial court.”Guest called Amaravati ‘capital of sex workers’On June 6, political analyst V V R Krishnamraju had appeared as a panelist on a show anchored by Rao on Sakshi TV, considered a mouthpiece of opposition YSR Congress Party which while in govt had abrogated previous TDP dispensation’s Amaravati capital project, and referred to the capital as ‘capital of sex workers”.Appearing for the 70-year-old Rao, senior advocate Siddharth Dave told a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan that he was only hosting the TV show and that the statement is not attributed to him but to a panellist over whom he had no control.Opposing the plea challenging the arrest, senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Sidharth Luthra said that when the offending and derogatory statement was made against women of Andhra Pradesh, the TV anchor, instead of stopping the panellist, was seen encouragingly laughing.The bench sought the AP government’s response to his petition seeking the quashing of the FIR against him. However, it cautioned Rao not to involve himself in any defamatory statement or allow any panelist to make such a statement in live TV shows.
