[Reader-list] Deccan Herald Article By Kuldip Nayar

[Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi]

Dear all,
 do we not see this happening in our day to day life and the interaction of
tv shows.?


"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."

Regards,

Rajen.
______

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 5:50 PM, Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi <
rajen786uppinangady at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> 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.
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>
>
>
>
> --
> Rajen.
>
>


-- 
Rajen.