Remarks not against entire media: Katju

Press Council Chairman Justice Markandey Katju, who faced a walk out by four publisher members from its meeting on Thursday, has maintained that his controversial remarks were not directed against the entire media but only about a majority.

The council, in a statement, late on Thursday night said the publisher members of the Council, representing the Indian Newspaper Society (INS), demanded at the outset that Justice

Katju should apologise for his remarks that the majority of media are of poor intellectual level and they threatened that if he does not apologise they will walk out.

"At this, Justice Katju said that he will not apologise, and that he had not made any remark against the entire media but only about a majority.

He also said that he never used the word uneducated or illiterate, but said that the majority are of a poor intellectual level," the Council statement said.

Publisher members, Dr R Lakshmipathy (Dinamalar), V K Chopra (Filmi Duniya), Sanjay Gupta (Jagran) and Vijay Kumar Chopra (Punjab Kesri), strongly protested against the chairman's remarks and walked out when he refused to withdraws his comments.

It also claimed that Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla did not walk out during the council meet and stated that such reports were factually incorrect.

The statement also denied that Justice Katju asked members of the Council to walk out when he refused to apologise for his earlier remarks as demanded by them.

"....He (Justice Kaul) further said that he should not be threatened, and if these members wanted to walk out, they were at liberty to do so.  He never told them to walk out or get out," the statement said.