Journalists' association criticises Markandey Katju's comment on scribes

The Indian Journalists' Association Wednesday criticised Press Council chairman Markandey Katju for his comments on the intellectual capacity of journalists and urged the Centre to ignore such "ill-conceived" views.

In a statement in Koklkata, IJA general secretary Mrinal Biswas and former Press Council member Mihir Ganguly said that Katju's recent observations on the scribes "had crossed the limit of the jurisdiction set in the Act".

Demanding that Katju express regret for "casting aspersions on the media", it said, "IJA urges the government to ignore the ill-conceive views of the PCI chairman."

Alleging that Katju's observations were "dangerous and his efforts to impress upon the government to impose some restrictions on the Press are totally unacceptable to the journalists", the statement said scribes were competent enough to take care of any weaknesses in media functions.