Press Council walk out is counterproductive

The Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Justice Markandey Katju had a baptism by walkout at the first meeting with him as chairman of the council. Four members of the council asked him to apologise for his comments on the poor quality of journalists, following which they stormed out. Justice Katju’s comments and reactions of editors can be read here .

“Before we could even take up the agenda, four members…demanded an apology…for my comment that majority of journalists were of poor intellectual levels. They threatened me with a walkout unless I apologised. On my refusal, they walked out," said Katju, reports Hindustan Times .

The report added that four publisher-members of the council — R Lakshmipathy (Dinamalar), VK Chopra (Filmy Duniya), Sanjay Gupta (Dainik Jagran) and Vijay Kumar Chopra (Punjab Kesari) — strongly protested to the PCI chairman for his remarks on the media and journalists. They “noted with dismay that the chairman’s remarks demonstrated a deep bias against members of the Fourth Estate and that such bias would adversely affect the functioning of the council”.

The walk-out is brinkmanship at its worst. Justice Katju has already clarified his remarks made on the quality of media professionals. “In my interview to Mr Karan Thapar, I stated that in my opinion the majority of media people are of a poor intellectual level. This statement of mine was twisted and distorted by several persons on TV channels who quoted me as saying that all media persons are ‘uneducated’ and ‘illiterate’. I telephoned the lady journalist who anchored one of such TV panel discussions and asked her why she had distorted my words. She had begun the panel discussion by saying “Katju called journalists uneducated”,” Katju was quoted as having said by The Hindu .

Katju has gone a step further. “Press Council of India (PCI) chairman justice Markandey Katju has agreed to withhold the letter he had written to PM Manmohan Singh seeking punitive powers for the Council in a stormy session that witnessed four walkouts,” reports Hindustan Times .

The meeting should have been seen as an opportunity for both Katju and dissenting members to understand each other. Rather than get into a war of words in the media (of which both Katju and the dissenters are an intrinsic part), the meeting could have been an opportunity to bridge the divide.

Taking hard positions – when unnecessary – does not help the cause. It’s no different from how parliament functions often, with a walkout, no business concluded and a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. When politicians do this, media is the first to criticise the irresponsibility of our elected representatives. What the four publishers have done is no different.

There is no doubt that there needs to be introspection on how news media conducts itself and how, ideally, it should. This requires debate and discussions and consensus building, not childish walkouts.

Walk back in, engage with Justice Katju, and communicate your concerns.

That shouldn’t be too difficult for newspaper owners – communication is their stock-in-trade.