Press under watch? Camera monitoring journalists sparks row at CM's press meet

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A controversy erupted on Wednesday after a camera was installed inside the media room during Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan's post-Cabinet press conference, allegedly to monitor journalists.

The camera had been positioned to the right of the Chief Minister's chair at the Secretariat's North Block media room. Journalists who arrived for the briefing questioned the unusual arrangement and raised objections after noticing the camera. Public Relations Department (PRD) officials later removed it, saying they had received instructions to do so. The Chief Minister began the press conference only after the camera was taken away.

The press conference had been convened after the Cabinet meeting to announce relief measures for those affected by the recent heavy rains. During the briefing, Satheesan said the rain-related death toll had risen to 26 and announced financial assistance for flood-affected families, compensation for houses and shops damaged in the disaster, and measures including flood mapping, modernisation of dam management and desilting of rivers to mitigate future flooding.