Justice Katju for regulating social media

New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) Press Council of India Chairperson Justice Markandey Katju Wednesday called for regulating social media, saying it would prevent unpleasant material from making it into the public domain.

"Social media like Facebook and Google need to be regulated as a lot of dirty and filthy material is available on these sites and these affect the minds of the younger generation," Katju said during an interaction with women journalists at the Indian Women Press Corps.

Katju also supported some kind of regulation for media especially electronic media.

"Everybody should have self-regulation. I was scared when I was the High Court judge that if I took a bribe I would be impeached by Parliament. Lawyers' license can be cancelled by the Bar Council of India and similarly doctors' licence can be cancelled by the Medical Council of India for any medical negligence. So everybody is accountable except the media, especially the electronic media. They say we will have self-regulation. Then everybody should have self-regulation, why should there be laws? The very fact that you have laws is that society realises that self-regulation is not all that sufficient. There should be some fear among media," he said.

According to Katju, Indian media has been playing a very irresponsible role.

"I am not against the media and fight for their rights as nobody else would have. I am not calling for controlling media but regulating them. May be a separate committee should be constituted and the media fraternity should be a part of framing its guidelines," he said.