Tamil Nadu: Ruling AIADMK launches TV channel ‘News J’ to take on rivals

The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu launched a 24-hour satellite television news channel “News J” on Wednesday. The channel was launched by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

Speaking after the launch, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said, “I appeal to the media to carry news giving importance to the various schemes Amma’s government is implementing. I emphasize this because a few channels give importance to negative news and keep repeating them.”

Palaniswami further said News J would toe the ideals set out by Dravidian icon C N Annadurai and late Chief Ministers M G Ramachandran, AIADMK founder, and J Jayalalithaa and telecast “true news.” Lashing out at Sasikala and Dhinakaran as “selfish,” without naming them, Palanisamy quoted Arujuna’s victory from epic Mahabharata and said people’s ‘shakti’ and cadres were on their side since they had the blessings of “Amma (Jayalalithaa)”.

#NewsJTV pic.twitter.com/TYhqjFnYyN

— Edappadi K Palaniswami (@CMOTamilNadu) November 14, 2018

“Broadcasting welfare measures of the government need not be construed as pro-government,” he said. Telecast of news about the state’s welfare schemes will help poor people understand it and become beneficiaries which would, in turn, improve their standard of living as well, he added.

Meanwhile, Panneerselvam said the letter J in News J television represented “Jayam” which meant victory. He said the channel will always be a “constructive force, a true voice of democracy that would beat money power…the soul of Amma will guide us to victory.”

The ruling AIADMK was prompted to launch a TV channel of its own to take on propaganda against it by rivals since Jaya TV began backing Jayalalithaa’s aide V K Sasikala and her nephew T T V Dhinakaran after her demise.

Also, ‘Dr Namadhu MGR,’ a Tamil daily launched by Jayalalithaa in 1988, is under the control of the Dhinakaran camp led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam. However, this also prompted the AIADMK to start its own Tamil daily “Namadhu Puratchi Thalaivi Amma” in February.

It is to be noted that two months ago, the logo, website and app for News J were unveiled.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu: AIADMK replaces J Jayalalithaa’s statue that hardly looked like her