The country is controlled by laws; laws are controlled by politicians; politicians are controlled by voters; voters are controlled by opinion; opinion is controlled by media. Whoever controls media, controls the country
There exists a love-hate relationship between media and the powers that be, both former and current. All are of the opinion that by abusing the other or finding fault in the other, they can gain an upper hand. In fact, various sections of the media are committed to a kind of ideology that entails praising either the ruling party or the Opposition.
However, the good work of the ruling party is treated as blasphemy by the Opposition. The truth is that both, individuals and politicians or political parties or businessmen, want to be branded as the best, irrespective of their malpractices. Our politicians, especially in the ruling party, enjoy additional protection as the law enforcement agencies are under the Government and do the state’s bidding.
The result is that most journalists play safe. In on one page of their publication, they condemn something, and on the other page, they praise or attribute the same to somebody or some circumstance. The media does not create news but reports of what happens.
Our country is controlled by laws, the laws are controlled by politicians. The politicians are controlled by voters, the voters are controlled by public opinion. The public opinion is controlled by the media. So whoever controls the media, controls the country.
A report published by a media safety group on August 20, 2013, says that almost as many journalists died in India as in war-torn Syria in the first six months of that year. According to the International News Safety Institute, eight journalists lost their lives in Syria alone between January and June 2012. Journalists were attacked, detained, kidnapped and killed in crossfire by both Government and opposition forces. Syria today ranks as the most dangerous country in the world for practicing journalists.
The second most dangerous country is India, where there were six casualties. The last time India was among the top five worst countries was in 2010. In February 2013, Nemi Chand Jain, a journalist from Chhattisgarh, was found dead with his throat slit and a note clipped to his belt accusing him of being a police informer. The Committee to Protect Journalists later quoted media speculation that both local criminals and the police could be responsible for Jain’s murder.
In May 2013, three employees from a Bengali daily were murdered by masked men who forced their way into the office. Unknown assailants killed the manager of the paper, and then stabbed a proof reader and a driver to death. Two other incidents, which are a discredit to the country as they are direct attacks on the media, are quoted here as reported.
Jammu & Kashmir’s Agriculture Minister Ghulam Nabi lone’s security guards allegedly assaulted journalist Javaid Malik after he objected to their lewd remarks about his wife in Srinagar in June. Mr Malik said, “I made way for the cavalcade but the guards passed lewd comments on my wife that I cannot even narrate.” He stopped the motorcade and sought the Minister’s intervention. “When I narrated the incident, the Minister, instead of acting against the cops, directed his guards to beat me up. I was ruthlessly beaten to pulp at the Minister’s behest,” Mr Malik said.
Another incident involves Jagendra Singh, a social media journalist who was burnt to death allegedly after publishing reports against a Uttar Pradesh Minister. Singh used Facebook to report about civic issues in his hometown Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and pushed the authorities to provide solutions to local problems.
He was attacked by goons and policemen after his Facebook posts on May 28 and May 31. He had alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Dairy Development Minister had committed rape and was shielding criminals. His reports were often accompanied by photographs, which he clicked himself.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced an ex gratia amount of `30 lakh for Singh’s family and jobs to his two sons in the State Government, ostensibly to save the Minister, as per the media.
These incidents are not to say that the Indian media has no faults. It is rather high time for the media to do some introspection and not claim to be the only custodian of morality in the country. Justice Markandey Katju, former chairman of the Press Council of India observed, “Apart from blacking out news, most of the media channels have started creating, manipulating news and burrying the real news. Freedom of the Press is not at the cost of this nation and its people. The actual freedom of Press is when you report any news but these media houses restrict and report only certain facts deliberately.”
Another problem is that the media often portrays non-issues as real issues, while the real issue is sidelined. The real issues in India are economic in nature, such as poverty, unemployment, lack of housing and medical care. No doubt, sometimes the media mentions these issues such as farmers’ suicides, the rise in the prices of essential commodities, but such coverage makes for only a small percentage of the total reportage. A bulk of the coverage is dedicated to film stars, pop music, fashion parades, cricket and astrology. All the above are also views of Justice Katju.
There is no doubt, that the media reports the truth, but sometimes it does so by twisting the facts, as the following joke will show. When a visitor to a small town in Georgia came upon a wild dog attacking a young boy, he quickly grabbed the dog and throttled him with his hands. A reporter saw the incident, congratulated the man and told him the headline the following day would read, “Valiant local man saves child by killing vicious animal.”
The hero told the journalist that he was not from that town. Well then, the reporter said the headline will probably say. “Georgia man saves child by killing dog”. The man then said that he belonged to Connecticut. In that case, the reporter said in a huff that the headline should read, “Yankee kills
family pet.”
Whatever some high sounding moralists may feel as to what the media should do or not, or what it should report or not, Indian media is doing a superb job, with a few odd exceptions, as it is in every walk of life. But for the media, most of the scams and corruption cases would have remained hidden.
It should not be forgotten, that in all aspects of life, it is the money which makes the mare go — in the media industry too, the staff has to be paid, printing presses have to be run and a number of other expenses borne. Those who do not want to read the type of news which some media publications produce are welcome not to read those reports.
Nobody is forcing anyone. This writer does not want to offend anybody. As Bertrand Russell has rightly said, “The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others”.