25

Dec

OUR MEDIA IS LOSING INDEPENDENT FERVOUR

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Today’s Editon

New Delhi, 25 December 2023

Syed Khalique Ahmed

India is passing through a very difficult phase in its history for past some time now. While democratic institutions like the legislature, judiciary, and executive have been compromised, media which is known ,  as the Fourth Estate in a democracy, is also feeling badly shaken.

The mainline media, particularly the traditional print and television media, have seemingly surrendered to the powers- that- be.

Newspapers and television channels, according to those working in these organizations, have imposed self censorship  on themselves .They avoid publishing news that may give a bad image to the existing political dispensation at the Centre and in the BJP-ruled States.

The media houses, that refuse to toe the line of the establishment, face harassment, intimidation, and takeover by corporate houses favoured by the establishment. The best example is that of NDTV.

Many well-known TV anchors and editors, who showed courage to remain independent were either forced to resign or were sacked by their managements under political pressure.

Media houses have surrendered because of the control of the government over sources of their revenue. Even newspapers that stood firmly against the political establishment during the infamous National Emergency of 1975 seem to have weakened in their resolve to oppose the wrong policies of the today’s party in power .

Though some newspapers like The Indian Express have to a large extent maintained their independence, their coverage of the events, their display and placement of the news stories critical of the government indicates they are also treading very cautiously.

There was a time when The Indian Express chairman Ramnath Goenka sacked one of his reporters in Mumbai because the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra appreciated the particular journalist. If a journalist was praised by the government, it meant that he was not doing his duty: to be a true watchdog of the people.

But things have taken a complete reversal now. Journalists singing paeans of praise in favour of the establishment are rewarded by their management.

Famous journalist Ravish Kumar invented the “Godi Media” terminology for such journalists. “Godi Media” (loosely translated as those sitting in the lap of the government) of India is an equivalent term for the “embedded media” of the US and Europe. (But Ravish Kumar himself became a victim of the political establishment for standing up to the lofty principles of journalism. He left the NDTV under pressure but refused to surrender to his company’s management which is one of the most favoured corporate houses of the current political establishment.)

The commonality between the two types of media – Godi media and Embedded media - is that they strictly follow the government line in reporting the news and writing editorial and opinion pieces, without bothering about the people’s interest.

The avoidance of Godi media to give proper coverage to the mass suspension of MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is the best example of how Indian media or the Godi media toe the government line. The questions that should be asked from the ruling party, are directed to the Opposition parties and their leaders. The Indian media now is not reporting about the corruption and malpractices of the party in power as if no corruption and malpractices are taking place under the  present government. Instead, it is targeting the Opposition as an extension of the ruling dispensation.

The result of the change concerning media in India is that hundreds of journalists all over India, who still want to work independently, have been rendered jobless, have been  beaten up and arrested on charges ranging from terrorism to money laundering.

Siddique Kappan, a Malayali language journalist, was arrested in October 2020 when he was travelling to report on an alleged rape of a Dalit girl in UP’s Hathras.

Other journalists who were arrested included Aasif Sultan, Gautam Navlakha, Manan Dar, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah, and Rupesh Kumar Singh. They were all booked under the dreaded Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Gautam Navalkha was granted bail a few days ago.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a France-based non-profit media organization, all this has resulted in the plummeting of India’s Global Press Freedom Index to 161 in May 2023 from 150 in May 2022. This indicates a significant decline in press freedom in India.

 

Surprisingly, all this is happening when there is no Declared Emergency or official censorship in the country.

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