Yes, there seems to be:

(17:32:02) mhulboj@milosz2:~$ telnet 192.168.0.49 119
Trying 192.168.0.49...
Connected to 192.168.0.49.
Escape character is '^]'.
502 You have no permission to talk. Goodbye.
Connection closed by foreign host.

(17:32:05) mhulboj@milosz2:~$ telnet 127.0.0.1 119
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
200 unknown InterNetNews server INN 2.4.3 (20050407 prerelease) ready
^]
telnet> Connection closed.

A policy should be added to readers.conf (or localhost policy should be extended).