Skip to main content

A bigger shame for us in India: Media in Pakistan has often shown extraordinary gumption in showing truth to military power

By Anand K Sahay*
It is instructive to run a comparison between the American media in the time of adversity and our so-called independent news platforms- both print and television. (Not counting FM stations, by way of radio we have only the All India Radio, a government outlet and it won’t be fair to expect it to play anything other than a partisan role on the government’s side.)
We seem to fare so poorly by comparison that it is hard to believe that some of the leading media companies of the country are a part of the equation of democracy, in which the media is meant to report not just truthfully but also the meaningful truth- the truth that matters by presenting facts obtained with due care for accuracy in a way that ordinary readers and viewers -- in other words, ordinary citizens -- may discern the reality on the ground and be enabled to make intelligent social, political and economic choices based on the information provided by the media.
Alas, we are a long way from that elementary goal, from that basic expectation from a free press in a democracy. Indeed, the Indian media has soiled its copybook by its abject failure to report and analyse the times we live in with any sense of gravity, or responsibility to the reader/viewer, which means accurate reporting of what is significant and careful analysis and responsible comments.
In the name of reporting, the name of the game is unbridled partisanship in favour of those in power. The daily flavour of reporting has been reduced to the syndrome of “war-palat war”, to use the Hindi expression so much in use now, meaning “attack-counter-attack”- a reference to the meaningless jibes and counter-jibes of politicians and religious hypocrites-turned politicians that fill the pages of our newspapers.
Seldom does the media bother going behind the war of words that offer nothing more than low-level entertainment -- usually in the form of a play on words or a reference to mythology -- on an everyday basis. In other words, as consumers of media we are kept in a state of being sheltered from the truth. This is exactly what the rulers would like. That makes the daily production of news a command performance, roughly speaking.
This wasn’t always the case. Our journalists, on the whole, are responsible professionals, and the record shows this. Also, our bigger news companies are not short on resources and are in a position to offer quality reporting and analyses. But what’s gone completely missing in the Modi era is spine. There is no backbone to speak of in our newspapers and news television, especially the latter.
A recent example highlights this. A web-based respected current affairs platform wrote an analytical story based on official documents to express surprise -- and without levelling any allegation -- that BJP president Amit Shah’s son’s defunct business suddenly showed its turnover had grown 16,000 times in the period that Mr. Modi has been Prime Minister.
The story caused a sensation. There was nothing to challenge on facts as the whole case rested on official data. Yet, the petty trader in question had the temerity to file a criminal and a civil defamation case for Rs. 100 crore against the editors of the media company and the journalist who broke the remarkable story. This was evidently done to frighten others in the media and ensure that they do not pick up the story and do any further investigation or analysis.
Our media blacked out the story and subsequently reported only that the BJP president’s son had filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against some journalists. That was it. No one bothered to report why Union ministers had jumped to a small trader’s defence and called the news about him “false, baseless, malicious” without revealing the basis for saying so. No one saw fit to link threads and report why the Additional Solicitor-General of India was given special permission to defend the unheard of trader in court.
Luckily, the BJP and the Modi government couldn’t control social media and the story got out anyway. The Press Club of India also organised a discussion to which the judicial luminary Fali S. Nariman, who was unable to attend, sent a message in which he observed, “Any support extended by a political party in power to a private person’s defamation suit against another private person (of any profession or calling) is condemnable and must be condemned.”
He called the story-break and the defamation suit a matter of “significant public interest”. This is another way of saying that a defamation suit has no leg to stand on if the judiciary guards its independence. Presiding over the discussion, the present writer expressed keenness to know from the government how many other traders in agriculture commodities (besides Mr. Shah’s son) had seen their turnover increase as astronomically as the BJP chief’s offspring had.
Really, there are no answers to such issues, except bare-faced silence. Yet, our media was not moved. In fact, the principal culprit among news channels, which runs a lot of discussions every single day in praise of the government and the ruling party and -- more significantly -- with the aim of attacking the BJP’s political opponents, completely blacked out the story. Out of fear apparently, or under instruction from the rulers, the channel in question did not even report the filing of the defamation suit, lest the matter spin out of control in a discussion.
Once BJP’s most important leader who now mans the sidelines, Lal Krishna Advani, had said scathingly, referring to the days of the Emergency, that the media was asked to bend but it chose to crawl. Today, there is no fiat for the media to bend, but leading sections of it crawl anyway. They know how to read the wind.
The irony is they do not even notice that they have long stopped living by any journalistic ethic or standard. It is in this respect that our US counterparts have demonstrated that they have stood up to power boldly and entirely on the basis of the work they put out with professional thoroughness and accuracy day after day. Their work has truly stood out in bleak times.
A bigger shame for us in India -- the media in Pakistan, which has been a military dictatorship for the most part, has from time to time shown extraordinary gumption in showing truth to military power. It pays the price for doing so but has not flinched from its professional obligation. Journalists are kidnapped and tortured or killed on a fairly regular basis. We should summon the humility to salute their courage instead of going on and on about being a free press in the world’s largest democracy.
No one in America thought Donald Trump was winning the presidential race and the US media too got it wrong. This seemed to give President Trump the licence, as it were, to treat the media as an adversary to be hounded, just like he treated the Democratic Party, especially Hillary Clinton, his rival for the presidency. From day one, descending to the level of the street in his abusive style, he began to accuse the media of presenting what he falsely called “fake news”, an expression made so common by him that it has recently made it to the Oxford English Dictionary.
The president threatened to have journalists with some leading US publications and television stations jailed. But the American press and television did not give one inch. Let alone flinch, they did not let a day go by without analysing the significant political and policy actions of the government and showed the US leader to be a megalomaniac who is giving the needy in his country a bad deal while warming the hearts of big business, and is making war-like noises on a regular basis, threatening international peace and stability.
In contrast, the Indian media sidles up to the rulers. We may only guess at the reasons. Has the government quietly threatened them with unravelling any irregularities they may be guilty of? Or, do they genuinely love the government and all its failures and are ready to accept at face value any spin the government puts on its pet schemes and projects which are causing misery and despair to the country?
We should look ourselves in the mirror and ask: Are we courtiers and court-jesters, or do we take rightful pride in being journalists and stand with the people of India by giving them the truth, and not the convenient truth?
---
*Senior journalist and commentator, former president of the Press Club of India

Comments

TRENDING

Avoidable Narmada floods: Modi birthday fete caused long wait for release of dam waters

Counterview Desk  Top advocacy group, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has accused the Sardar Sarovar dam operators for once again acting in an "unaccountable" manner, bringing "avoidable floods in downstream Gujarat."  In a detailed analysis, SANDRP has said that the water level at the Golden Bridge in Bharuch approached the highest flood level on September 17, 2023, but these "could have been significantly lower and much less disastrous" both for the upstream and downstream areas of the dam, if the authorities had taken action earlier based on available actionable information.

Biden urged to warn Modi: US can declare India as worst religious freedom offender

By Our Representative  During a Congressional Briefing held on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, Nadine Maenza, former Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), has wondered why the Biden administration should raise issues of mass anti-minority mob violence  -- particularly in Haryana and Manipur -- with Modi. Modi should be told that if such violence continues, the US will be “compelled by law” to designate India as one of the world’s worst offenders of religious freedom, she urged.

From 'Naatu-Naatu' to 'Nipah-Nipah': Dancing to the tune of western pipers?

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*  Some critics have commented that the ecstatic response of most Indians to the Oscar for the racy Indian song, “Naatu-Naatu” from the film, “RRR” reeks of sheer racism, insulting visuals and a colonial hangover. It was perhaps these ingredients that impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, one critic says.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Why iconic Urdu book stall, publishing house Maktaba Jamia died an 'unnatural' death

By Firoz Bakht Ahmed*  We have all grown through the fragrant flavours and flairs of our childhood, one of them being our childhood mother-tongue historic magazines like, “Thakurmar Jhuli” (Bengali), “Khilauna”, Payam-e-Taleem" (Urdu), “Hans” (Marathi), “Parag” (Hindi), “Chitralekha” (Gujarati), “Chandamama” (Telugu), etc. I “drank” Urdu while suckling his mother and learnt the language not from any madrasa, school or college but from these publications only — my treasure trove!

Asset managers hold '2.8 times more equity' in fossil fuel cos than in green investments

By Deepanwita Gita Niyogi*  The world’s largest asset managers are far off track to meet the  2050 net zero commitments , a new study  released by InfluenceMap , a London-based think tank working on climate change and sustainability, says. Released on August 1, the Asset Managers and Climate Change 2023 report by FinanceMap, a work stream of InfluenceMap, finds that the world’s largest asset managers have not improved on their climate performance in the past two years.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Evading primary responsibility, ONGC decides to invest Rs 15,000 crore in sick subsidiary

By NS Venkataraman*  It is reported that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will infuse about Rs 15,000 crore in ONGC Petro-additions Ltd (OPaL) as part of a financial restructuring exercise. ONGC currently holds 49.36 per cent stake in (OPaL), which operates a mega petrochemical plant at Dahej in Gujarat. GAIL (India) Ltd has 49.21 per cent interest and Gujarat State Petrochemical Corporation (GSPC) has the remaining 1.43 per cent.

Sales, profits of Indian firms 'deteriorate', yet no significant increase in cost pressures

By Our Representative  The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad's (IIM-A's) latest Business Inflation Expectations Survey (BIES), a monthly exercise, has said that while cost perceptions data does not indicate significant increase of cost pressures, sales and profits of the Indian firms have deteriorated.

Why Bangladesh is achieving 'new heights' amidst economic collapse of Pakistan

By Sufian Siddique*  Pakistan's economy is on the brink of bankruptcy like Sri Lanka's. Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves have fallen below $3 billion. They have asked the IMF for a 'bailout loan' a long time ago, but the IMF is trying to impose strict conditions that Pakistan's current ruling coalition has no capacity to meet. Even China and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan's long-standing loyal friends, are now reluctant to shoulder Pakistan's burden.