Kolkata: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee yesterday (Sep 5, 2004) accused the media of committing excesses in reporting the hanging of the rape and murder convict Dhananjoy Chatterjee.

"I am against the entire matter -- the way media handled the issue," Mukherjee told newsmen in Kolkata.

"It is too much and it cost precious lives of some children in the State," Mukherjee said when asked to comment on Left Front Chairman Biman Bose's statement blaming the media on the issue.

Suggesting a self-imposed code of conduct, Bose laid the blame for the death of the five children who died emulating the hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee on the door of the media.

Biman Bose described the death of five children while emulating the hanging as "shocking".

"News reports should not have an adverse effect on society through over-projection," he said.

He strongly voiced disapproval of the media coverage of hangman Nata Mullick attending a number of functions including the blood donation camps after the execution.

"I simply fail to understand why Nata Mullick should have been invited by organisers," he said.

"Nata has just done his duty assigned to him. I do not know what prompted media to give him a treatment like that of a hero," he wondered.