No journalist held captive during UP CM's visit to a hospital in Moradabad: Official

No journalist was held captive in a hospital here during Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's visit there on Sunday, a senior official said, reacting to reports about restriction on the media on the occasion.

According to a report, some media persons were locked up in the emergency ward of a district hospital during Adityanath's routine visit here.

In his clarification on Monday, District Magistrate of Moradabad, Rakesh Singh said there is no rule to stop the press persons to cover any programme but that they are bound to follow the rules and some persons were stopped from entering the ward, not held captive by the administration.

Singh said while some journalists were allowed inside the ward, over 35 persons were "detained" in the hospital as part of safety measures and security considerations.

He also asked the concerned information officer to prepare an "accurate" list of government accredited journalists to prevent problems of coverage during VVIP visits.

In a tweet on Sunday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government of muzzling the media.

"Journalists are being held captive, questions are being curtailed, problems are being ignored. The full majority BJP government in Uttar Pradesh is turning away from people's questions. The public knows it all. It will ask questions and demand answers too," she wrote on Twitter.

The Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh East also tagged to her tweet a media report, which alleged that cameras of journalists were being shut during Adityanath's visit to Moradabad.