Press Council chief calls journalists dumb; seeks more powers

Expressing a poor opinion of journalists in general, Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju on Sunday said he was seeking more powers for the council to curb the electronic media in particular.

"I have written to the PM that the electronic media should be brought under the Press Council and it should be called the Media Council, and we should be given more teeth. Those teeth would be used in extreme situations," Katju said in a TV interview.

Katju, a former Supreme Court judge, further said most journalists had a "very poor intellectual level".

"The general rut is very low. Frankly, I don't think they have much knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy. I don't think they have studied all this," Katju said.

He added that he had received a letter from the prime minister that his letter had been received and "they are considering it". He said he had also met the leader of opposition, Sushma Swaraj, and she had told him that probably there would be a "consensus".

"I want powers to stop government advertisement, I want to suspend the licence of that media for a certain period if it behaves in a very obnoxious manner, impose fines," Katju said, while maintaining that all these measures would be used only in extreme situations.