The Executive Committee of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has taken strong objection to the remarks made by Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markandey Katju in a television interview and in subsequent statements issued by him to the press. At its meeting here on Thursday, the Executive Committee “noted with dismay that the Chairman's remarks demonstrated a deep bias against members of the Fourth Estate.”
At the meeting of the Press Council of India, four publisher-members from the INS — R. Lakshmipathy ( Dinamalar), V.K. Chopra ( Filmi Duniya), Sanjay Gupta ( Dainik Jagran) and Vijay Kumar Chopra ( Punjab Kesari) — strongly protested against Mr. Justice Katju's remarks that he “has a poor opinion of the media” and that the “majority of media people are of very poor intellectual level with no idea of economic theory or political science, philosophy, literature.”
Since Mr. Justice Katju refused to withdraw his remarks, the publisher-members walked out in protest. “I told them that I would not change my stand under threat,” said Mr. Justice Katju. “You cannot pressure me, you cannot push me around…I told them that if they wanted to walk out, it was their choice.”
