"The other day there was a seminar in Delhi about the allegations that during
the Lok Sabha elections both the print and electronic media not only took money
from political parties and candidates, but also extorted as much as they could.
Several journalists also admitted that a lot of money changed hands during the
election campaign.
It came as a shock to me when I did not find even a word about the seminar or
Sibal’s allegation in newspapers or television. Obviously, we are all naked
together in this bath"
DEATH OF IDEALISM
Shameful media
By Kuldip Nayar
When we slanted news and accepted money for putting across a point of view
during the elections, we fell from professional standards.
The other day there was a seminar in Delhi about the allegations that during
the Lok Sabha elections both the print and electronic media not only took money
from political parties and candidates, but also extorted as much as they could.
Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who inaugurated the session,
contended that ‘they’ knew how the stories were planted and paid for.
Several journalists also admitted that a lot of money changed hands during the
election campaign. Nothing came out of the seminar, but a senior political
leader told me that if a commission were to be set up to inquire into such
dubious practices, he for one would be prepared to give evidence.
It came as a shock to me when I did not find even a word about the seminar or
Sibal’s allegation in newspapers or television. Obviously, we are all naked
together in this bath. Some of us have, however, approached the Press Council
to set up a committee to go into the slush money used during campaign. The
Election Commission has also been tapped unofficially to find its response. One
member said that if payments could be proved, the EC would consider them as the
expenses of candidates.
New development
Such charges were also made during the last Lok Sabha election. But then the
quantum of payment was small and the number of newspapers and TV channels
involved was limited. This time it seems there has been a free for all. Names
of leading newspapers and TV channels are hawked about in the bazaars.
Even otherwise, the press in India has humiliated itself since the Emergency.
With the exception of very few newspapers and journalists, others caved in by
pressure or for a price. L K Advani made an apt remark after the Emergency:
“You were asked to bend, but you began to crawl.” Since then the mystique of
journalism has been lessening by the day and now the media has been reduced to
tittle-tattle.
Celebrities from the cine world or cricket are the only personalities that
count where the media is concerned. Newspapers copy the TV channels in
sensation and the latter in turn copy the newspapers in pontificating.
I must admit that I found journalists in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had
more gumption than people in our media. Pakistan had martial law and the
journalists defied it and got lashes. In India the Emergency at best could
detain people in jail. Still, we failed shamefully.
True, politicians tend to use us. They have their own interests to serve. But
then we play into their hands. When we slanted the news and accepted money for
putting across a particular point of view during the recent Lok Sabha
elections, we were not truthful and fell from professional standards expected
in a democratic structure.
After reading newspapers or watching TV channels I feel as if a new version of
the Emergency is starting to unfold where truth has become a relative term and
there is nothing left like values. India is not a banana republic run by and
for opportunists who will stop at nothing to line their own pockets and wield
power.
We have a great heritage. Mahatma Gandhi sent his message through a weekly,
‘Harijan’. Nehru said at the All India Newspaper Editors’ Conference in 1950:
“I have no doubt that even if the government dislikes the liberties taken by
the press and considers them dangerous, it is wrong to interfere with the
freedom of the press. I would have a completely free press with all the dangers
involved in the wrong use of that freedom than a suppressed or regulated press.”
He feared high handedness on the part of the establishment, but little did he
realise that one day the danger to the press will be from within, not without.
Journalists themselves will offer their heads on a plate in return for
position, pelf and privilege. Those who choose to bend their knees in this
ignoble way should consider whether they also want to be held responsible for
passing on them to the next generation.
Where is the idealism gone? Once the profession attracted the best and the
brightest who saw that they would be in the midst of challenges facing the
society. They wanted to combat parochialism, archaic ideas, bullying by power
brokers and anything that could be construed as threatening the common man.
Take newspapers and TV channels today. They avoid debates on issues. They
present a point of view of their own or of the vested interests. They deny a
voice to those who do not tally with their bias or prejudice. In fact, they are
the most undemocratic species talking in the name of democracy. What kind of
country do they want? At what are their sights set? Is it only entertainment?
If so, they should not associate their publications with the press.
Not long ago two reporters from the ‘Washington Post’ challenged the President
of the United States (Richard Nixon), ultimately forcing him to resign because
he had lied to the nation. I am not suggesting that the press in the West is
ideal. We saw how the whole Western media sold itself to their respective
governments during the Iraq war. The embedded journalists who could only report
what they were allowed were worse than our journalists in the Emergency.
When a journalist ceases to be a journalist and compromises, he brings down not
only the ideals of the profession, but tells upon the democratic temperament
and the ethos of the nation. I feel sorry the points made at the seminar in
Delhi were not debated by the society. But I feel more disappointed over the
attitude of journalists and politicians who know that there is a problem of
lessening integrity, yet they prefer to sweep it under the carpet
With Regards
Abi
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
- Voltaire"
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