By Ranjona Banerji
The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has fined TV channel News 18 for a “debate” held on the Karnataka hijab issue by its anchor Aman Chopra. The channel was fined Rs 50000, and ordered to take the programme off air.
The order said that the programme was “violative of the principles related to impartiality, neutrality, fairness and good taste and decency”.
The investigation into this programme by Chopra followed a complaint by tech ethics and safety professional, Indrajeet Ghodpade in April this year. Yes, it took that long.
If you do a search for this fine, you’ll find just a few references that pop up: Sabrang, Newslaundry and legal platforms like LiveLaw and Bar and Bench. News 18 which has a robust website does not feature at the top.
https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/nbdsa-pulls-up-news18-india-for-linking-hijab-supporting-panellists-with-al-qaeda-advises-channel-to-guide-aman-chopra-on-sensitive-debates-212529?infinitescroll=1
https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/10/26/violative-of-principles-of-fairness-good-taste-news18-india-fined-rs-50000-for-show-on-hijab-ban
There’s also not much heat and fury and handwringing about falling journalistic standards in the Indian media by journalists, viewers, commentators or anyone else. Remember, we’re talking about a massive and powerful mainstream media channel like News18. Not some little independent digital platform.
However, if you search for The Wire and Meta imbroglio, where The Wire has taken down its investigations into Meta and apologised, you will find references everywhere, including, ahem, from News 18!
Well, duh!
Because in India’s skewed media world, it is accepted that the bulk of the mainstream media and television especially, is not expected to have any standards at all. Chopra and his lot are known for constant and consistent destruction of journalism – if they are journalists at all, that is – and of shameless targeting of minorities and lower castes to push a Hindu majoritarian agenda.
The Wire on the other hand is expected to do good journalism so when it falters or fails, the wrath of the Unrighteous falls heavily on it.
To me, this is hogwash.
Yes, The Wire messed up badly. Its expose into how Meta (that is what was Facebook) acts on complaints made in India and how posts critical of the BJP are taken down promptly, was full of unverified suppositions. Experts quickly pointed out that The Wire’s tech understanding was faulty, even as The Wire stuck to its guns and doubled down on its expose.
However, a week later it issued a statement saying it was investigating its own processes and removed the articles from its website. It has now apologized for the whole episode, claiming it was deceived and that the person concerned no longer works with The Wire. And further, that its reporting and editing standards were being examined and reviewed.
https://thewire.in/media/the-wire-editorial-to-our-readers-an-apology-and-a-promise
The Wire continues to face excoriation for carrying the story, for falling for a tech hoax, for not having a rigorous understanding of tech basics and so on. The backlash has been absurd to the extent of its ombudsperson Pamela Philipose being personally attacked on social media for not speaking out. When in fact she did cover the issue when her fortnightly column came up.
https://thewire.in/media/backstory-getting-to-the-heart-of-the-meta
What makes The Wire special in that it has to follow some high journalism standards which News18, to mention just one, does not? Why is it all right for News18 to create social disharmony on a regular basis but not all right for The Wire to mess up?
After all, the core of The Wire’s article on Meta’s processes was about how Instagram posts critical of the BJP were taken down. No matter how The Wire was deceived, how come those Instagram posts were put back only after the first Wire article appeared?
I myself believed The Wire story based on this, whatever was wrong with its processes. And the inferences that the BJP had an inside line to Meta are easily believable, given Meta’s long history of allowing its platforms to be used, right from the Cambridge Analytica revelations. If the BJP’s IT Cell is not as powerful as many of us assumed, our apologies to it.
For the rest of us, we need to relook at how and why we raise and lower our journalistic standards for different platforms. The reach of television far overrides that of digital news. The hatred spewed out every night by popular anchors on TV far supersedes any hoax played on random journalists. We cannot continue to accept or pretend that TV has no responsibility. A Rs 50,000 fine does not even begin to cover the tremendous damage done to India by irresponsible journalism.
And as for Meta, well…
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal