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Indiantelevision.com
NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India (PCI) report on media in Bihar has raised a major political storm, with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley alleging that PCI Chairman Justice Markandey Katju was targeting non-Congress ruled states and the latter denying these charges and action taken in Congress-ruled states.
Both of them have demanded each other?s resignation, with Justice Katji saying Jaitley "is unfit for politics."
In an article on the BJP website, Jaitley had written that Justice Katju?s attacks on non-Congress state governments seem like "a thanksgiving to those who gave him a post-retirement job."
"His utterances, both during his tenure as a Judge and thereafter, are clearly outlandish. Dignified comment is alien to him. His attacks on non-Congress governments whether in West Bengal, Bihar or Gujarat seem more in the nature of thanks-giving to those who provided him with a post retirement job," Jaitley wrote in an article titled, ?Why Justice Markandey Katju must quit as the Chairman of the Press Council of India?.
Justice Katju has said the BJP leader "has presented half-truths and has gone down to a very low level in personal attacks," adding, "I have criticised Maharashtra Chief Minister when the Facebook girl was arrested. I issued a statement when the Himachal Chief Minister threatened a media person, saying his camera will be broken. So I have criticised Congress governments also." He also referred to his statement when the police attacked demonstrators in Delhi against the gang-rape, and the recent detention of senior mediaperson Ifthikar Gilani.
In his article, Jaitley had also said that Justice Katju?s article in a newspaper against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi read more like a "personal tirade".
"Justice Markandey Katju has failed every test on which a Judge whether sitting or retired could be judged. The choice of his subjects and targets is motivated by his political preferences," he had written.
The Congress party has also attacked Jaitley for his views, particularly the comments about Justice Katju?s remarks about Modi.
In its report, the PCI had strongly criticised the Bihar Government, accusing it of arm-twisting the media through various means. It compared the situation in Bihar with Emergency when a complete censorship was imposed on the media.
?The media in Bihar has been gagged and newspapers have become mouthpiece of the government,? said the recently-released report of the PCI on the state of media in Bihar.
Last year on 25 February, Justice Katju constituted a three-member fact-finding team to look into the complaints by some journalists and also people from civil society that the media was not working objectively in the state. The team recently submitted its report to the PCI.
?Journalists in the state are now gagged, muted and handicapped. The newspapers either avoid publication of news related to crime, ransom, land grabbing by the leaders of the ruling establishment or their supporters, murders, and the activities of the land mafia, or they are underplayed and published in brief as small news items,? the report said.
Likening the situation to that of Emergency, the report stated: ?Free and fair journalism in Bihar is facing a situation of censorship, the likes of which were seen during the Emergency in our country.?
