Thiruvananthapuram: Journalists in Kerala have protested against the state Crime Branch’s move to seize the mobile phone of a reporter from a Malayalam daily, who reported on the data breach of candidates who applied for PSC jobs, and the alleged attempts to coerce him into revealing his sources.

A march was organised by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) district committee to the DGP office on Tuesday, in protest against the notice issued to the reporter of Madhyamam daily, Aniru Ashokan. Similar marches were organised in various districts, including Kochi, Kozhikode, and Kannur.

Inaugurating the march in Thiruvananthapuram, senior Congress leader and convenor of the party-led UDF, M M Hassan, alleged that the police action was a fascist step and said that questioning a journalist to uncover the source of such information is a violation of press freedom.

He urged the police and the government to withdraw from the move to curb freedom of the press. Senior journalist R Rajagopal also spoke.

The report was about the alleged leak of login details of around 6.5 million PSC job aspirants by hackers, which, according to it, were being sold on the dark web.

The newspaper has said that the case against its reporter will be fought legally.