The hounding of journalists is not new to Tamil Nadu. The governments of M. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalitha have been active and prolific practitioners of this insidious exercise in their various terms in the past. So, the recent arrest of cartoonist Bala for his caricature of chief minister Edappadi Palanisami and two district officials came as little surprise. Following a complaint from the Tirunelveli district collector, Bala was booked for printing “defamatory material” and publishing it in electronic form. He was picked up from his Chennai home on November 5, and released the next day on bail.