'Presstitute' confused with 'Prostitute': V K Singh says people getting confused between these two

New Delhi, April 11: After much uproar over Union Minister General V K Singh's comment describing media as ‘pressitutes', the former Army General again clarified on the whole matter.

In an exclusive interview to Headlines Today , when Singh was asked about the 'presstitute' controversy, he said, "I think lot of people are only creating all kinds of things....it is a very valid word.....written by somebody who is a well known writer, if you Google it you will find it. What is being done is that this particular section of media is hell bent on trying to confuse people that presstitue means prostitute.

A presstitue is somebody whose pen is up for grabs...for some motive which is not journalistic...it is got nothing to do with other word...why don't we take it that way...I can say paid media..it means the same thing."

On Tuesday, Singh who is in Djibouti to oversee evacuation of Indians from Yemen during a press conference had said that the evacuation operation is less exciting than going to the Pakistani embassy.

And when social media started commenting about the remark, former Army chief later in night tweeted, "Friends what do you expect from presstitutes." Adding that last time the TV anchor thought there was 'O' in place of 'E'.

BJP distanced itself from the controversial tweet of Singh, saying twitter is personal and not a party forum and the meaning of the tweet can best be explained by the person concerned.

"Twitter is a personal platform and not a party platform and the meaning of the tweet can best be deciphered by the person concerned," BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said. His tweets evoked sharp reactions from political parties including Congress which said the comments were "deplorable" and showed his "insensitivity".

General VK Singh pushed for media regulatory body

At loggerheads with media in recent days, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh on Friday pushed for a media regulatory body to function as an effective watchdog".

Singh, who has been under attack for calling newsmen as "presstitutes", said he is been repeatedly attacked since 2012 by certain "media workers" who not only cooked up stories, but also did enormous harm to the institution that he was heading, the Indian Army under the watch of the UPA government.

Alleging that there was no accountability for their actions, he said they are not only getting away scot free but also keeping up a "steady flow of misinformation".

"... The government of India, perhaps not wanting to take on these ‘media workers' who would hide behind the larger umbrella of the ‘National Media', failed to act," the former Army Chief said in a statement.

"It is time that the media itself seriously looked at creating an effective watchdog organisation that has the power to actually nip this malice in the bud. Today the media's own credibility is at stake and unless there is effective internal policing, this problem threatens to go completely out of hand," he said.

Terming media as "one of our great strengths", he said if it has to be protected from being seen as compromised, then it is vital that all collectively push for a regulatory body.

He said that he had complained to the Home Ministry in 2013 about "planted stories and their immediate sources" and added that he would be happy to forward the complaint that was filed with the MHA to the Broadcaster's Association, should it publicly commit itself to forming an impartial body with specific time lines.

Angry over Singh's remarks, local journalists under the banner of Journalists' Association Ghaziabad burnt an effigy of the Minister of State for External Affairs.

In a letter to the Prime Minister which they handed over to the district magistrate, the scribes demanded a public apology from Singh for calling newsmen "presstitutes".

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)