[Reader-list] Deccan Herald Article By Kuldip Nayar

[Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi]

Dear Rakesh jee,
 thanks a lot.

Regards,

Rajen.
On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 4:19 PM, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:

> DEATH OF IDEALISM Shameful media
> *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.
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>




-- 
Rajen.