Hyderabad, May 19 -- In a move that raises concerns about press freedom, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing an illegal telephone tapping case on Tuesday, May 19, issued a legal notice to Telugu daily Namasthe Telangana, demanding it retract a report on alleged harassment of journalists during the investigation and threatening legal action if it continued to cover the case in a manner the SIT deemed unfavourable.

The newspaper had published a report on May 19 under the headline "Journalists harassed in tapping case," alleging that the SIT had been harassing journalists connected to the phone tapping probe in which key Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders allegedly conducted surveillance on phone conversations of over 600 people,...