Media organisations and top journalists have reacted sharply to Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju's statement that scribes have low intellectual level.
Lashing out at Justice Katju, former Editors' Guild chirman Rajdeep Sardesai told rediff.com, "It is wrong to paint the entire journalistic community with the same stroke. We are in the process of drafting a formal response and the same would be released to the media by the evening."
Former India Today editor Inderjeet Bhadwar wondered if Justice Katju had any intellect himself for having made the wreckless statement.
The newly-appointed chairman of the Press Council of India had, in an interview to television news channel, stated that he was very disappointed with the way the Indian media works. Justice Katju also said that the media was not working for the interest of the people and sometimes divided the people of the country.
"The general rut is very low and I have a poor opinion of most media people. The majority (of media persons), I am sorry to say, are of a very poor intellectual level. I doubt whether they have any idea of economic theory or political science, philosophy, literature, I have grave doubts whether they are well read in all this, which they should be," Justice Katju had said.
S K Pande, general secretary of the Delhi Union of Journalists, termed Justice Katju's statement as provocative and condemnable."In every profession, there are very good and indifferent people. You cannot make a sweeping statement for the entire journalistic community without knowing how the media works," Pande said.
