Lessons from the hunt for Riyaz Naikoo: Careless & jumpy live commentary on anti-terror ops needs to be banned

The horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks is infamous for our media personnel’s impatience to garner quick TRP which in turn had seriously endangered the lives of security forces and helped the terror operatives sitting in Pakistan to convey instructions about every minute details about the commando movement to the terrorists. The handlers reminded the likes of Kasab and others to persist, for the ‘glory’ of martyrdom awaited them — all in real-time.

A lot has been said since then about media’s ethical role in times of crisis and such terrorist operations but our TRP-hungry media is only driven by one motive—to maximize profits in the face of suffering.

Consequently when Riyaz Naikoo, Hizbul Mujahideen’s chief in Kashmir was being pinned down by the valiant security forces whilst the operations was still live, some media houses quickly jumped the gun in order to break the news first and started proclaiming that the terrorist had been gunned down. The irresponsible speculative reporting by media houses drew the ire of J&K Police which had to tweet to set the record straight.

Soon after the news of his death broke out, a mob of terror sympathisers and supporters of Riyaz Naikoo started attacking security forces in Pulwama.

Such news can jeopardize the entire operation and put the lives of the forces in grave danger. Yet, the conduct of the media has been harrowing to the say the least.

And if the immature speculative reporting of media was not enough, a photojournalist named Junaid Bhat with the left-leaning and anti-India portal The Wire has come into the light for sharing intimate details of the various terror operations undertaken by the forces and uploading ‘sensitive’ photos and videos on social media platforms.

In his posts, he is seen romanticizing the nefarious terrorists and it does not take much to gauge where his allegiances lie.

A journalist took to twitter to share Bhat’s sinister love for Pakistan and how most certainly he will be feeding Intel to the Terrorists.

https://twitter.com/Iyervval/status/1257995172551352325

Here he is seen eulogizing the now killed terrorist Zakir Musa and how non-Muslims cannot be trusted and that they are traitors for selling-out the terrorist.

On his social media accounts, Bhat has been sharing his pictures of operating dangerously close to the Indian Army personnel, in the process revealing critical information that should have otherwise remained under the wraps.

On his Facebook page, the terror-sympathizer shared several videos of the Riyaz Naikoo encounter that was underway at Beigpora which could have been used by the terrorists to find an escape route.

If all this isn’t enough to paint the picture how flawed and shallow our media’s responsibilities are, we have another prime case of a reporter turned vulture–Rajdeep Sardesai.

When the terrorists attacked the Parliament in 2001, Mr. Sardesai has admitted on record that he was ‘excited’ and that Journalists are like vultures. The smug face with which Rajdeep said such statement in the interview-video still does the rounds of social-media routinely.

Rajdeep reiterated that it was a “great day” for him and how he was fortunate to be there at the time of the incident. He went as far as to say that for journalists, ‘terror is exciting’.

The media cannot be ethical, especially when its revenue is determined by the advertisement it generates, which only comes its way when the channel has high TRP.

Therefore it would be hyperbole to expect that the media houses will tread a responsible approach in such scenarios, which sure will arise in the future again.

The government needs to formulate stringent laws and come down heavily on such vultures and terrorist-sympathizers who masquerade as journalist but are only ambulance chasers at best and vultures at their worst.