What is the principal function of Media in a society?
Well if I answer in strict ideological terms then the role of the media in a society can be described under the following points.
- Act as a watchdog for the government and let people know what the Government is up to
- Expose corruptions of the official authority
- Speak for the people
- Represent the interests of the society
- Make sure the Government is following the principles of transparency and accountability
- Make sure the citizens of the nation stay informed
Now let us come to Indian Media. Here the watchdog seldom acts like a watchdog. In India there is a lapdog and hostiledog variety of Media too. While the former extols the virtues of the Government and dances to the tunes of it like a trained courtesan, the latter blows news out of proportion to clutch the government by the neck. The lapdogs and hostiledogs represent the institutionalized corruption in Indian media, where the Indian media houses receive funds for broadcasting information supportive of individuals, corporate houses, political parties and leaders. Sometimes they receive funds for negative campaigning from political parties, corporates and foreign institutuons. This is what is known to the common citizen of India as paid news. Many would recall that Ashutosh went out of his way to praise the Aam Aadmi Party before signing off as a journalist and joining the ranks of AAP. The belligerent attitude of the who’s who of the Indian Media – Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose and Arnab Goswami towards Narendra Modi can be accredited to the same brand of journalism.
But the paid news is not a new phenomenon. It probably is as old as the media itself. But the recent trend of Anti National news is alarming. It is common knowledge that In Indian Media, the religion related discussions get the maximum TRPs. And when a terrorist belonging to a minority community is slated to be hanged, the debates on TV News are escalated to epic proportions. People glued to their TV sets, devour in large amounts, the opinionated take of the panellists in disguise of real news. When Afzal Guru was hanged, the Indian media called it a desperate effort by the Congress Government to win the General Elections. And when Yakub Memon was hanged, the Indian media went on to call it the travesty of justice. They debated incessantly about the denial of fundamental rights. Their aggressive reporting challenged the authority of the judiciary and that of the President himself.
A report in The Indian Express mentions that the Union Information and Broadcasting ministry has issued show-cause notices to three TV channels for showing content which displayed a total lack of respect to the President of India and the judiciary. The channels which have been served the show cause notices are ABP News, NDTV 24×7 and Aaj Tak. The Broadcast Editors Association (BEA), the apex body of editors of news channels of India is now playing the victim card by calling the government unreasonable.
But let us first look into what the aforementioned news channels did in the garb of news reporting:
NDTV came under the scanner of Union Information and Broadcasting ministry for running an interview with Yakub Memon’s lawyer who quoted examples from western nations where similar cases were pardoned. The panellist allowed him all the screen time in the world.
Aaj Tak and ABP News were served notices because they thought it was prudent to run a telephonic conversation with Chhota Shakeel who went on to say that justice was not carried in the case of Yakub Memon. He also warned India of severe consequences. Here is the link to the ABP News article.
Common sense tells me, broadcasting news in favour of a terrorist who called an all-out war against India is anti-national, questioning the authority of the President and the judiciary on national Media is not wise and inviting terrorists to throw their two cents over the entire episode was, well, simply the murder of all journalistic ethics. The Indian media houses must understand that such news incite people. Marginalizing a community by making them feel like proxy citizens amounts to provoking them. Almost all leading houses of the media are flag-bearers of secularism but such biased media reporting kills the very idea of secularism.
I, as a responsible citizen of this nation, welcome this step by the Union Government. Indian Media like any other domain must wake up to its responsibilities. And while the Government is at it, It must also look into the recent articles by Firstpost and Scroll!