By Ranjona Banerji
The biggest news events of 2016 were Donald Trump and demonetisation. In 2017, we’ve had hangovers of both, if you forgive the allusion to what is going to happen to many of you in a few days.
But the question for us, as ever, is how has the media responded to the year. In spite of all the television cheerleaders of demonetisation including those who gloated that the poor may have suffered but they were happy even if they were dead, by the middle of the year it was clear that the economy was not quite so overjoyed of being cashless. However, the results of the UP and Uttarakhand assembly elections which gave an overwhelming majority to the Bharatiya Janata Party was seen as a mandate for the prime minister and his schemes.
Sadly, from that euphoria for the ruling party, especially amongst our TV colleagues, the figures from the Reserve Bank of India continued to be unhappy. The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax was so shoddy and badly done, that all that happiness that people had as they died standing in line to gain access to their own money evaporated and gave way to chaos.
The launch of Republic TV with Arnab Goswami at the helm shook up the TV world, as expected. Bennett Coleman and Co accused Goswami of stealing stories and stealing streaks of fire across the TV screen. The first accusation had some merit – Goswami and his reporters apparently sat on information they had gathered on Times Now so that they could use them at Republic. As for burning questions (plus fake flames) and the Nation Wants to Know, these things are only important for TV addicts and the more gullible amongst the general population.
The worst result of the launch of Republic TV is that Times Now has become worse than it ever was even in Goswami’s most belligerent and bellicose days. If Goswami and his new channel have abandoned all pretences of journalism, Times Now appears to have decided to either stoke communal disharmony at every step or when there is no fodder around, sink to extreme silliness.
In the world away from television, we had some hits and misses. The venerable Economic and Political Weekly did not cover itself with glory when it sacked respected and senior journalist Paranjoy Guja Thakurtha as editor. The sticking point was an investigation into the Adani Group’s suspected financial finagles. It was a legal notice that supposedly spooked the EPW board and caused huge disquiet about the heart of a much-needed standalone publication.
Rumours said that some senior journalists at the Economic Times had been asked to quit for misreading the UP election. Rumours also said that this had been done at the behest of the government which cannot take criticism. Rumours are rumours and either you can believe there is no smoke without fire – as any journalist would – or you can rant and rave about how jholawallahs continue to target the poor, downtrodden, innocent, unloved BJP and Modi.
The Wire took up where EPW left off and did a massive exposure into BJP president Amit Shah’s son’s mysterious finances. It took a few days for only some in the rest of the media to look into Jay Shah’s case, with once again a huge rescue mission being launched by government and BJP-friendly media outlets. The division between journalists once more became clear.
Caravan also did an enormous and detailed investigation into questions around the death of Judge Loya in 2014. The judge had been presiding over a case involving Amit Shah. The media silence was deafening at first. And then we had a somewhat sorry spectacle of a number of publications – including the not expected presence of The Indian Express – trying to debunk the Caravan story.
As the year ended however, and as incidents of sectarian violence and communal disharmony created by Sangh Parivar affiliates increased, some popular columnists who had steadfastly stood by Prime Minister Modi for the past four or five years, standing changing their tune. Most prominent of these are Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Tavleen Singh and Sadanand Dhume.
The American media remained steadfast in their condemnation of the worst of Donald Trump as US president and showed us up again and again.
The winners of the year however live on social media. A number of young people took up and kept alive issues that need more widespread publicity and discussion from the traditional media. The first are all the various dangers and discrepancies in the Unique Identification or Aadhaar enrolment. The second is the right to privacy. Both are linked and both affect us all, right down to our core. These lawyers, activists and writers have ensured in the courts and on social media these key factors in our freedom as citizens are constantly simmering and humming on social media. They have, as a result, shown far greater understanding and maturity than many journalists.
Some of whom remain sad jokes. Like Times Now’s obsession with the burning issue of Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s movie choices. What a way to end the year!
​Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She is also Consulting Editor, MxMIndia. The views here are her own.