Category: COLUMNS

By Ranjona Banerji

 

As the rumour mills had been suggesting for some time, changes were going to happen in the TV18 group. But who would have known that the changes would be so drastic? The general impression was that the power pair of Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagorika Ghose would leave, especially after apparent instructions that Narendra Modi has to be praised at all times. Instead Reliance Industries which had first invested in TV18 and apparently changed its political direction has just bought the whole group out. The first casualty was the Group CEO Sai Kumar but the biggest casualty is perhaps the group’s founder Raghav Bahl.

 

When Caravan magazine did an investigation into TV18’s finances, they did not appear to be in the pink of health. When this website quoted the Caravan article, various representatives of TV18 were apparently upset. Now however, the holding guard at TV18 have all gone and the new dispensation has poured in Rs 4000 crore to buy out shareholders and run the organisation and its various properties.

 

The turn that CNN-IBN made from the centre of politics to the right was visible to most. According to a story in Scroll.In, Sagorika Ghose was asked to turn down her anti-Narendra Modi rhetoric. Earlier, we had been told that star TV personality Karan Thapar refused to be eased out and waiting till his contract expired after which he took his show to Headlines Today. So also Ashutosh of IBN7, who however then joined the Aam Aadmi Party.

 

Rajdeep Sardesai stopped being critical of Narendra Modi – who was still prime ministerial aspirant at the time. Bahl, according to Caravan, was very keen on Modi and at a conference organised by the group last year, lauded Modi who was its star invitee. Insiders quoted by Caravan said he wanted to start a foundation called “Think Right” and the conference would follow that name. However on objections from Ghose about “misinterpretation”, the name became “Think India”.

 

But all that was window dressing as TV18 jumped off the centre fence and turned right. This was most evident in its website firstpost.com which has made a speciality out of interpreting or re-dressing every move made by Narendra Modi and the BJP. It is not clear whether firstpost will be affected by this massive sweep-through by Reliance. Bahl has not been spared despite his change to the right. It is important to note that there is a difference between making an editorial decision to turn right – which is entirely justifiable – and changing political direction because of corporate and management pressures or ultimatums.

 

The grapevine says that Reliance will now run TV18 as it sees fit and this may not include whatever staff is left. Journalists like Gautam Chikarmane and BV Rao joined a Reliance digital wing recently and there are some murmurs – unconfirmed – that they will run the show at TV18. Given Reliance’s last foray into the media with The Observer – an unmitigated disaster where a newspaper became a PR vehicle for just one company and then died – the future looks bleak for TV18. However some feel that this Reliance is not that Reliance and so there is hope for TV18’s journalistic wings.

 

Be that as it may, direct corporate interference will not work for journalism and journalists. Whether this is the end of TV18 I do not know but it is certainly the end of TV18 as we have known it, warts and all.

 

This article from Scroll has all the details: http://www.scroll.in/article/665841/Rajdeep-and-Sagarika-to-resign-as-Reliance-takes-over-Network-18

 

And this press release from Reliance has all the other details: http://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/Reliance_Industries_Ltd_290514.pdf

 

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The Mumbai Press Club will hold its Red Ink Awards on June 7. This year, Mrinal Pande has been selected for the Lifetime Achievement Award. Pande is the first woman who became editor of the daily Hindustan and recently retired as chairperson of Prasar Bharati. She was also founding president of the Indian Women’s Press Corps. The award includes a trophy, a citation and Rs 100,000.

 

Congratulations to Mrinal Pande and a great choice by the Mumbai Press Club!

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

After 19 years, Shekhar Gupta who is editor-in-chief and has also been CEO of The Indian Express, resigns. His note to his colleagues is long (like his columns), moving and personal. It includes some tips on how to practice good journalism but is more like this: “I so love you all, friends, colleagues, much younger, brighter and with a great future. I am proud of you and cherish the time we spent together. I will be generally in my office until June 15.There is a fair bit of pending writing. So please be forewarned: you will still have to endure the corridor addas on my compulsive breaks from spells of writing, bare feet and all.”

 

The note does not say where he is going but the buzz says it is to the India Today group in a very senior capacity.

 

The media world is also waiting for news about where exactly Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagorika Ghose of CNN-IBN are going and whether there will be any other changes in the Network18 group. The gossip is between Naveen Jindal’s TV channel, Hindustan Times which wants to start a TV channel, the Hindu (for one) and a sabbatical to write a book (for one). Thanks to Twitter, we shall probably know as soon as anything happens.

 

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When senior TV journalists start complaining that the media is covering the rape of two minor girls in Badaun, UP, like the satirical film Peepli Live, then you know that the media is in trouble. Journalists from all over have descended on this village and the scene has become like a circus apparently. But it is a bit of a Hobson’s choice for the media: if you don’t go you’re in trouble and if you go you can make it worse.

 

The media has seen this double rape in a number of ways. For some, it is about the fact that the girls were Dalits so this was one more in a long and shameful list of dehumanising, discriminatory and oppressive tactics. To others it was the fact that the girls were walking to the fields because they had no toilets. Lack of toilets was seen as the reason for the rape. Law and order was another tack.

 

However to my mind all these are justifications for extreme sexual assault and murder. The lack of toilets provides opportunity to a rapist perhaps but often so does sitting at home, going for a walk, standing at a bus stop and so on.

 

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The death of Union minister and BJP leader Gopinath Munde in a car accident in Delhi is certainly shocking news. And certainly, news channels are at the forefront of bringing such news to the viewing public. However, how would it hurt if producers spent a few minutes off air with the reporters at the scene to find out how much they know instead of making viewers suffer through an inept interrogation process?

 

Also, for the Times Now morning anchor, what is an “extremely fatal collision”? Fatal (causing death) by itself would perhaps suffice. Even if you suffer from extreme adjectivitis, you need perhaps to choose your victims more carefully.

 

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After a gap, I decided to skim through primetime TV news on Monday night. Times Now had a big fight on the Badaun rape where panellists appeared to be yelling at each other. The others I can’t remember. But Headlines Today bucked the trend and was sitting in Hyderabad to discuss the formation of India’s newest state, Telengana. Excellent as an idea, until you watched the programme.

 

For some reason, Rahul Kanwal, star anchor and editor of some sort on Headlines Today, decided that attendance at the swearing-in ceremony for Telengana’s new Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and his Cabinet was the most important point to be made. Seemandhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu (whom he called “Babu” throughout) did not attend. This apparently was the greatest transgression ever. Kanwal went from political party rep to political party rep to harangue them for reasons. First they were polite, then as they were provoked they traded charges and the whole thing descended into childish nonsense. Am not sure how newsworthy this was for the rest of India except perhaps for thinking people to wonder why they vote at all…

 

When Kanwal started comparing this swearing-in non-attendance to India and Pakistan, I switched off the television. There are limits to how much idiocy anyone can stomach in one night.

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

Given the intrusive nature of the media today, it is hardly surprising that UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is annoyed with it for focusing on the Badaun rape case. After all, why on earth should the media focus on the rape and murder of two minor girls if not to target his state? Especially some ordinary little case, where the victims are found hanging from the branches of a mango tree making for one of the most terrifying images in recent times?

 

Rape as a conspiracy against me is a ridiculous argument perfected by Mamata Banerjee in Bengal and now picked up by Yadav. It made no sense then and makes no sense now. Add to this a bizarre feeling of being picked upon – only UP is targeted when rapes happen elsewhere. Yet the most talked about rape cases in recent times have been what is called the Park Street rape case in Calcutta, the December 2012 gangrape and murder in Delhi, the two Shakti Mills gangrape cases in Mumbai… Imagine instead a scenario where the media did not focus on such crimes.

 

Shooting the messenger is an age-old ploy and is not likely to stop. But it does not make it any less idiotic.

 

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The media itself however has decided that idiocy is its birthright and it shall have it, to paraphrase Lokmanya Tilak. Endless second by second reporting about the new prime minister on television means that other news – and this includes the Badaun rape and the murder of a young Muslim man in Pune allegedly by a Hindu rightwing group – gets short shrift. This only gives credence to allegations that the media is drifting from the centre to the right.

 

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Have to give kudos to ET Panache, the features section of Economic Times for actually registering the fact that the DTH operator Tata Sky is not showing Neo Sports and Neo Prime to its subscribers who are therefore unable to watch the French Open, the second Grand Slam event of the year which ends this weekend. Interestingly, Tata Sky did not respond to ET’s questions, which is in keeping with its silence on the social media site Twitter as well. The legal wrangle between the two has cost tennis fans dearly.

 

Interestingly, a section in Panache on lingerie for women made the assumption that men would drool over the offerings and buy stuff for their “lady love”. The glass ceiling for women is not limited to the actual corporate world itself then. It extends to the media as well.

 

Looking at ET Panache led me to look at the glossy supplement Corporate Dossier. It was quite an eye-opener. If corporate types, junior or senior, still have to be told that they should come to work on time and other such homilies then you wonder whether your chewing gum and washing machine sellers have much clue about whatever it is they do.

 

And here’s something interesting from fashion designer JJ Valaya, revealed in a questionnaire in a section called “Wanderlust”. Under the segment titled “Gourmet Gaffes”, this is what he had to say: “Can’t handle raw meats and have got into sticky situations, such as at Vienna’s Bristol Hotel when an important business associate offered up raw dear meet (one of the rare varieties) just before we had to sign an important agreement.”

 

Dear meet, raw or otherwise, boggles the mind. Like just whose gourmet gaffe is this? I would bet on a sub-editor.

 

Ranjona Banerji

 

The question about the impartiality of the media has assumed larger and more significant proportions ever since the new Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power at the Centre. We already saw changes and sackings before the elections because senior editors were not genuflecting enough before the prime ministerial hopeful. We saw a whole media group changing tack after it was taken over by India’s biggest industrialist.

 

But now that we are a month into the election results, genuflecting at the altar of government cannot be a consistent feature of a media which prides itself on being a pillar of democracy. Even countries which India pillories – like Pakistan – have a more resistant media. Let’s not forget China, where is there is a constant effort to fight a totalitarian regime. Can India afford a media that is bound to the business interests of a few industrialists who must therefore appease or stroke the ego of a “muscular” new government?

 

The last Congress government and its ministers and spokespersons were made fun of or castigated by the media and rightly so. And this government must also now bear the burden of media scrutiny and criticism. And yet, one has heard the most remarkable excuses from people within the media – it is too early, give them time, they have so much to do. All these journalists need to get out of their journalistic costumes and start doing what they really want – become official spokespersons for the new government or work in its media offices.

 

The same holds true for journalists who acted as cheerleaders for the last government or for any government. But in spite of all the accusations hurled at journalists for not being anti-Congress enough, the support for the BJP within the media especially by expert columnists and owners is unprecedented. Editors were not sacked and whole enterprises not overturned because journalists did not like Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi. But look at Open, Network 18…

 

“Inflation rises to 5-month high of 6%” says a Times of India headline. The blame has been apportioned to “rising food prices, below-par monsoon, Iraq turmoil”, all of which will only make matters worse. I use this as an example, since the Times of India is one of India’s most balanced, middle-of-the-road papers adhering strictly to the tenets of the Planet of Bennett Coleman.

 

Yet, when the last UPA government had cited global, meteorological or any other reasons for inflation, it had been torn apart by the media and the opposition. And yet, the very same reasons are now apparently acceptable. Obviously, an opposition’s got to do what an opposition’s got to do but the media doesn’t really have to sit back and accept it. If the UPA government was fudging with its excuses, then so is this one and it is up to the media to call it to account.

 

Time for the Indian media to stop crawling on its collective belly and stand up.

 

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I am not a football fan (yes, you can take me out and shoot me later) but even I cringe on behalf of all football fans at the utter travesty of the special Indian World Cup coverage put together by Sony. The tamasha that moves around IPL should exist in its own IPL universe since IPL is a travesty of cricket for purists. But why apply those same meagre standards to poor football? If even I know that your pre-match shows are pointless annoying froth, then you are really doing something wrong…

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

An Egyptian court has sentenced two Al-Jazeera journalists to seven years in prison and another to 10 years for “aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news”. Two other Al-Jazeera journalists have been sentenced in absentia, to 10 years each. Al-Jazeera has denied all the charges against their staff who had reported on the turbulent events after Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi’s removal from office in July last year.

 

Is this another case of shooting the messenger or of a people wanting only news that appeals to their sensibilities being given prominence?

 

Many Egyptians felt cheated when the Muslim Brotherhood came to power after the “Arab spring” and the removal of Hosni Mubarak. The army then removed Morsi who was seen as pro-Brotherhood.

 

However, a democracy is all about everyone getting a chance even those you don’t like. And journalism is all about reporting on the unpleasant as it is about telling you which movie star absolutely hates wearing pink. Life-threatening stories all but someone has to do them.

 

The Egyptian courts however seem to have confused a dislike amongst some for the Muslim Brotherhood with reporting on events around the Muslim Brotherhood. The two are neither interchangeable nor the same. Democracy is about dissent as many have pointed out and there will always be some story which offends someone’s political sensibilities. Jail is not the answer, especially when evidence appears to have been thin on the ground.

 

This is from a New York Times editorial about the trial: “In fact, when asked by the court to display the allegedly false news reports obtained from the defendants’ laptops, prosecutors showed images of one journalist’s family vacation and horses grazing in Luxor, Egypt. That would be laughable if the consequences were not so grave.”

 

Appeals will apparently take years and the implications for journalists who want to venture further from boring bread-and-butter stories seem ominous. So much easier to earn an easy wage than disturb the status quo, as we see many of our colleagues do with a dispensation in power? The journalistic community the world over stands in solidarity with Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed. It is the least we can do.

 

In the Indian context, we are not yet in this position and indeed are very far from it. But it is true that dissent is not understood or appreciated by all sides of the political spectrum and this is true of journalists themselves. There is immense bitterness and anger for journalists with the community who do not toe some line or the other. However, being difficult is our birthright and we should not budge from it.

 

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Every year I write this and why should this year be any different? How does one get through to the foreign news channels which broadcast around the world that their weather people need to have a little more understanding of local weather conditions? The BBC World Service is the worst offender here. As India struggles with a heat wave or a slow monsoon we are repeatedly told about “fine, dry, sunny weather” all over the country – with temperatures at 40 degrees Celsius this is quite heartening for us miserable natives. We understand that the UK is a nation plagued by rain and craving sunshine. But when you broadcast on what you call a “World Service” how much will it hurt to figure out how the rest of the world looks at itself?

 

For the record then, the monsoon is vital for India’s survival. We look forward to it. It is late this year, already 45 per cent below par. The effects can be catastrophic. So, throwaway remarks about “scattered showers normal for this season” really hurt. Not everyone sees life as an opportunity to get skin cancer in the Costa del Sol. For some of us, rain is life.

 

As a final note, I spent a miserably hot summer in the UK last year, covering Wimbledon for Mid-Day. People were dying from the heat. The weather forecasts did not then drone on and on about “fine dry weather”. Think of this Indian situation with extreme heat in some parts and a missing monsoon something like that, please.

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

The international media, at least such as we see it in India, is not unnaturally obsessed with the new “Caliphate” of ISIS which has apportioned to itself parts of Iraq and Syria. Since it now claims to speak for all Muslims and is a group which is even further to the fundamentalist right of al-Qaeda, ISIS represents everything the West and some parts of the rest of the world fears the most about Islam, Islamism and Islamic terrorism.

 

Of course, while the anchors and reporters are all worked up with moral outrage, most experts and commentators point to the USA’s inescapable role in the collapse of Iraq plus the effects of constant Western interference in the Middle East. Oil, as many have pointed out, has been the curse of the Arab world.

 

Just as a passing thought, I would love just once for some non-white television journalist to walk through New York, London, Paris and say to the camera, “I have been picking up chatter on the Christian street”. No?

 

Of the Indian news channels, Newsx appears to have someone in Baghdad. The rest are relying on feeds. Surprisingly, given the normal hyper-jingoistic nature of Indian TV news, the fate of the Indians living in Iraq has been rather subdued. One wonders why…

 

But then when you watch the fawning over the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at Sriharikota to attend the launch of India’s 27^th PSLV, you have your reasons. The launch, as someone pointed out, was not the news: Modi’s presence was. The PM was suitably impressed by the launch, the media was even more impressed by the PM and all is right with such a world.

 

The best takeaway from this launch however came from the Twitter handle @PMOIndia. This informed us that the PM ended his speech with “Bharat Mata ki hai” and also, in another tweet, that the PM had indeed concluded his speech. Modi also felt that India’s space programme was a “perfect example of his vision of Speed, Scale and Skill” – a remarkable achievement on the part of India’s scientists, given that the election was won as recently as May 16.

 

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On television, we found also found other things to concern ourselves with: Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal’s appalling speech about how he would get people beaten up and women raped, the continuing saga of Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia, the rising price of onions, building collapses and the failing monsoon. Railway accidents we do tend to forget about the week after they happen and we are at that stage now. What rail accident, you ask? Indeed.

 

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The most chilling story of last Sunday’s papers was from the woman who has accused BJP MP and minister Nihalchand Meghwal and many politicians, including from the Congress, of rape: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/my-husband-wanted-power-thats-why-he-brought-men-from-both-congress-and-bjp-to-me/

 

There is an odd silence from the Central government on this case and an even odder reluctance from the media to do its usual hammer and tongs act…

 

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Then there’s this, which is also ripe for outrage, Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar takes about rape in a lighter vein: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/parrikar-s-rape-remark-insensitive-say-women-s-group-1.1353761

 

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While we’re looking at issues to outrage about, has there been a blackout of the suicide attempt by Tanu Sharma of India TV? Too many skeletons, allegations to close to the quick? http://news.oneindia.in/feature/suicide-attempt-when-media-insider-cries-foul-why-does-media-fall-silent-1473101.html

 

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For those who rail against the control that big business has on the media, was one of the world’s most celebrated sports writers made to leave The Times London after 32 years because he was too expensive or because he upset the rich huntin’ fishin’ fu….’ crowd? Simon Barnes leaves The Times: http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jun/27/thetimes-national-newspapers

 

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And finally, the most complete silence of the media on a subject which it talks about to itself. The Mumbai Press Club organised a chat about Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s new book on Reliance and gas pricing. The media attended and a “lively discussion” took place. Kalpana Sharma writes about what happened after that!

http://thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=7614