DR. HASHIM KIDWAI criticises the role of media and asks it to rediscover its past glory and conform to time honoured norms of highly valuable national culture.
Media continues to be very powerful in India – the largest parliamentary democracy of the world. Over the years, it has grown much stronger and mightier. It has a far more expansive reach today than it was before as according to the available figures the readership of papers and magazines in the country is 190 millions while 384 million Indians watch television and listen to radio news and other programmes.
But unfortunately, while media is growing, it is not growing up. There have been very much disturbing trends quality-wise. Apart from truth being the first casualty, the disturbing trends include subjectivity, inaccuracy, misquotation, marketing men as editorial heads, sting operations with questionable methods and breaking news dozens of times a day on the TV, using TV studios as court rooms, sting at the price of human rights and prejudices of editors.
Nowadays, media has become a sort of entertainment industry in the wake of globalisation. Entertainment is now treated as synonyms with sex and crime. Unfortunately, on this account Indian newspapers and magazines are full of semi-nude models, nude pictures and articles on kissing, bed room manners and office romances. It is really distressing that media is making us a nation of sex alcoholics. It is really unfortunate that national English dailies are throwing soft porn at the readers every day. Parents are very much worried over the sinister effects of these dailies on their children. Incidents of rapes are published with livid details. It is no exaggeration to say that today increase in crimes is to be attributed to the mischievous material being promoted by the print and electronic media. It matters little to the media if in the process our highly precious values are subverted and our cultural ethos is destroyed.
It is really distressing that media has degenerated into a highly counter productive force and has abandoned the path of idealism. The main factors responsible for this phenomenon is that the lever of control has been transferred from editors who used to command respect to the media Mughals for whom only circulation and money are the main objects. To whom means are of no consequence, ends only matter. Today media’s culture is for power’s sake. It no longer aspires to change the world. It is becoming insensitive and profit-driven like any other commercial activity. It is now not only influenced but even led by grossly profit-oriented market forces. It is slowly hijacking the country from its time-honoured and highly precious national culture.
Free Press is an institution for the public good. The Press Council of India had been set up as a watchdog but media takes it very causally as the council does not possess any punitive power. There are a number of instances when the council issued guidelines which were treated with contempt by the media. Distinction between broadsheet journalism and tabloid journalism which is assiduously maintained in the west stands obliterated in India. Media here has the unique privilege of unaccountability. There is inaccuracy and misinterpretation on a very large scale in media reporting but there is no punishment for an errant judgment.
Media, which has sermons for all sections of the society from the legislature to the judiciary, does little soul searching. It is high time the Parliament gave punitive powers to the Press Council of India to deal with irresponsible section of media representing hit-and-run type of journalism.
Most unfortunate is that important issues like ongoing agrarian crisis leading to suicide by farmers, dowry deaths, displacement of tribals across the country are being sidelined and Muslims are maligned over issues like triple talaq, which is very rare. Media must introspect and rediscover its past i.e. the glorious role it had played in pre-Independence India.