Beijing, April 19: The All-China Journalists Association (ACJA)on Saturday asked US-based news network CNN and its commentator Jack Cafferty to apologise for his "insulting" remarks regarding China.

Cafferty said in the TV show April 9 that Chinese products were "junk" and China was "basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years" when the Olympic torch relay was going on in San Francisco.

In an interview with Chinese media, a senior official with the ACJA strongly condemned Cafferty for his "insulting" words and asked him and CNN to make a formal apology to all Chinese as soon as possible.

"Since the Lhasa violence March 14, some foreign media including CNN had made a number of biased reports about the incident," the official said.

CNN had violated the principle of objective reporting, and "this is not what responsible media should do", he said.

"And Cafferty also disregarded a journalist's professional ethics by attacking a country with insulting words," the official said.

CNN issued a statement Tuesday saying: "It was not Mr Cafferty's nor CNN's intent to cause offence to the Chinese people, and CNN would apologise to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way."

But, the statement said that Cafferty was offering his "strongly held" opinion of the Chinese government, not China's people.

"We hope CNN and Cafferty realise that they have harmed the feelings of Chinese and apologise with a rational and responsible attitude," the official said.

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