NEW DELHI: Press Council chairman Justice (retd) C K Prasad who came under fire for "unilaterally" moving Supreme Court to intervene in a petition to remove curbs on media in Kashmir , claimed on Wednesday that he had not supported curbs on media freedom in Kashmir.

Citing portions of the intervening petition he had filed to buttress his argument, Prasad also singled out The Hindu editor N Ram and asked him what he would choose if there was a "head on collision between individual rights and national interest".

Prasad was unanimously criticised by media bodies including The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday for moving the apex court allegedly in support of restrictions imposed on media and for not consulting the 28-member general body of the PCI before doing so. In a letter attacking The Hindu editor, Prasad alleged that the very "premise" on which he had "built his superstructure" - that Prasad had supported the communication blockade in Kashmir - "is a lie".

Quoting his intervention application in a petition moved by Rising Kashmir executive editor Anuradha Bhasin, in which she argued the Kashmir press was not being able to discharge its duties due to the communication lockdown, Prasad said he had sought to intervene because Bhasin's writ petition spoke of right of journalists to free and fair reporting on the one hand, and national interest of integrity and sovereignty on the other."

