The ambit of the Press Council of India should be expanded to include supervision and regulation of of not just the print media but also that of the TV and electronic media, Chairman of the Press Council of India Justice Markenday Katju said even as he raised concerns about the killing of journalists especially in the North-East and Kashmir.
Katju, who has been known to be critical of the media said that the regulatory body should be given powers to punish media houses instead of mere admonishment.
"For better regulation, both TV and electronic media, which includes web and social media should be brought under the Press Council of India. It should also be renamed as Media Council," said Katju at a press conference in Panaji. Members of the PCI are down in Goa to attend their annual meeting.
The former Supreme Court judge Katju sought to compare media professionals with law professionals saying that that errant media-persons should be punished just in the way the Bar council acts against lawyers and the medical fraternity acts against errant doctors.
"The Council currently has only powers of admonishment and censure. We need to have powers to fine and suspend licences for us to be effective," Katju said, that Council had made recommendations to the effect on several occasions, to no avail.
The Press Council also conceded that freedom of the press was under attack with over 50 journalists being killed over the last 12 years in the North and Jammu and Kashmir.
"In the last three years, four journalists were killed in Tripura and three in Manipur alone. Over all 26 journalists have been killed in the North Eastern states and Assam in 12 years, while 25 were killed in Jammu and Kashmir," a Press Council of India member Amarnath Konsuri said. "What's even more shocking is that there has not been a single person convicted so far for killing journalists," he added.
Konsuri who is also on the PCI sub-committee for formation of a proposed law for protection of journalists in India, said that the legislation would have a provision of compensation as well as a job for the kin of slain journalists and that the thrust of the law would be on getting faster justice.
"These cases involving attacks on journalists should be tried by fast court. The accused in the Shakti Mills gang rape case has been sentenced because it was fast tracked, while in case of Mid-Day journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, it is still on," Konsuri said. "We are going to recommend a compensation of not less than Rs. 10 lakh and a government job for the deceased journalist's kin," he said.
In April this year, a trial court had held three persons guilty for raping a woman photo journalist in Mumbai within a year, but a case of a murder of journalist Dey, is still unresolved.
Commenting on the trend of political parties as well as business houses with close links to government starting their own media platforms, Katju said that there was no law to bar them from starting media outfits. The PCI chairman also credited the media for what he described "fair" reportage of the recently concluded lok Sabha 2014 election. "I didn't see basically anything wrong with the reporting by the media," he said.