“It’s a blatant attempt to muzzle the media and a violation of the Constitutional protection to the press,” a statement issued by the Editors Guild of India today said. The Guild said it was shocked by the attempts of the Andhra Pradesh government, which is provoked by members of the ruling party, to put pressure on Eenadu and its editor Rao.

“There are reports that the authorities are planning to obtain a search warrant against the offices ostensibly to search for papers connected with a financial company owned by Rao. But any move by the police to search the offices of the newspaper and its editor amounts to a direct attack on the freedom of the press,” the statement said.

Rao, a past president of the Editors Guild, the statement said, had informed the Guild that an undeclared Emergency was on against himself and his newspaper for the past 100 days. He had accused the State government of indulging in selective media leaks to destroy his and his newspaper’s credibility, the Guild said.

The Guild, in a statement issued by its president Alok Mehta and secretary general K S Sachidananda Murthy, cautioned the state government against using the investigations against the financial company owned by Rao and his family to settle scores with an independent newspaper.

The Guild, the statement said, expected the Government of India and the civil society to intervene strongly against any witchhunt against the newspaper and its editor. “A newspaper cannot be hounded just because the government of Andhra Pradesh and the ruling party in the state dislikes its editorial policy,” the statement said. “In the matter of the investigations into the financial company owned by Rao and his family, the matter is before the higher courts and law should take its natural course,” it added.