Chennai: Tamil Nadu Assembly today (Nov 7) punished two editors and four journalists for "gross act of Contempt of the House as a whole" and "gross act of breach of privilege" of the House, and sentenced them to 15 days simple imprisonment.

The journalists who were awarded imprisonment are the editor N Ravi, executive editor Malini Parthasarathy, publisher S Rangarajan, chief of bureau (Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh) V Jayanth, and a special correspondent of 'The Hindu' Radha Venkatesan (now abroad), and S Selvam, editor and publisher of 'Murasoli', the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) official organ.

'The Hindu' had published an editorial in March, based on a report by Radha Venkatesan and an article by Jayanth, which cast aspersions on the acts of the Speaker K Kalimuthu, House Privilege Committee and the House as a whole, a resolution moved by the leader of the House and Finance Minister, C Ponnaiyan said.

The Tamil paper 'Murasoli' had reproduced the editorial, which was also a "gross act of breach of privilege" the resolution said.

Even as the House was passing the resolution by a voice vote, the entire Opposition protested against the resolution and shouted slogans like "Do not strangulate the press."

Reacting to the imprisonment, editor-in-chief of 'The Hindu' N Ram described it as "outrageous" and said, "We will fight it out in the court."

Speaking to reporters at the paper's office, Ram said the decision was to "throttle" and "infringe" on the freedom of the press.

"We will also use every possible fora in the country to get justice," he said.

PTI