"But the manner and circumstances and the so-called justification of the CBI raids give me reason to believe that all this is definitely an unjustified attack on press and media", he said.
Pointing out that "through all this, NDTV has remained defiant", the daily says, "Last year, its Hindi-language station was ordered off the air for a day as punishment for reporting on a sensitive attack on an air base, but it stood by its reporting, insisting that it was based on official briefings".
Shourie alleged that the government would in future not only resort to managing but also suppressing the voices of dissent.
NDTV network founder Prannoy Roy on Friday said the CBI case against him was "ridiculous and a concocted set of facts" and asserted that he and his wife Radhika Roy "never touched black money and never bribed even a single person" in their lives.
In a show of strength, senior journalists converged at the Press Club of India meeting organized in the national capital. The Indian Journalists Union had condemned the raids and said that the ruling party was misusing organs of the state to browbeat critics and enforce self-censorship on the media.
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Sad, mad, inexplicable day. "I don't want this to go on too long and crumble in front of him - for it to all end in tears". But a lack of success in the Champions League was only magnified when domestic success dried up.
"Even though lakhs and crores of rupees of dues have not been paid by several industrialists and no criminal case has yet been registered against any of them by the CBI, the CBI has chosen not only to register an FIR, but also conduct a search for a loan which has been duly repaid to ICICI Bank. We are facing more or less the same situation as in the Emergency", he said. Prannoy Roy of NDTV thanked everyone for their presence and support and said that the issue was not about NDTV but "a signal to all of us". "We must. Be clear it's a signal for the entire free press of India", he said.
The protest meet was attended by a large number of well-known journalists. "Please make it a time bound process and a deadline", he added.
Noting that his fight was not against investigative agencies but against politicians, Roy said: "Our fight is not against the CBI or Income tax or Enforcement Directorate, it is against politicians, who are manipulating and want to eviscerate these institutions".
"Please don't believe there can not be smoke without fire".
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