By Ranjona Banerji
The more Indian “journalists” continue to toe the government line on the crackdown in Kashmir, the more incompetent they are going to look. Whether these government-controlled “patriots” like it or not, the world is watching. Lancet, the British Medical Journal, the United Nations, a variety of international media journals and news channels are doing what these worthies are not: their job.
The general public may have a misconception, or several, of what the media ought to be doing. People may be right or wrong. But journalists know. And they know that by regurgitating what’s being fed to them by the government, they are practising something other than journalism.
The BBC spoke to people. “Patriot” Indian journalists may not like what the people of Kashmir think or feel or experience, but these are their stories. If you don’t tell them, someone else will. The BBC link contains disturbing photographs, alleging torture, so be careful if you are squeamish.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49481180
Author Shahnaz Bashir wrote this for Time Magazine on the communication shut down in Kashmir.
https://time.com/5659671/kashmir-indian-government/?utm_source=emailshare&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-article&utm_content=20190828
The extent of the crisis in Indian journalism is evident when a senior anchor on Times Now has no qualms about bemoaning the death of a Union minister on Twitter saying, now that her mentor has gone, she has no one to talk to in the morning any more. At the same time, she has no qualms about yelling at a senior journalist in a TV debate when the senior journalist upholds the rights of people to read books which the police don’t like.
It shows a complete twist of the TV anchor’s understanding of her job as a journalist, if indeed one can still call her that.
Sidharth Bhatia writes here in The Wire on the dangers facing Indian journalism today:
https://thewire.in/media/india-journalists-kashmir-power
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With the collapsing economy, disgruntled voices are now getting stronger, in both reportage and comment, within and without. Perhaps this is because media cheerleading of daft government policies aside, eventually gross incompetence is going to hit us all where it hurts. What price patriotism, eh?
The new FDI rules on the media are going to hurt people as well, especially since few seem to have read them through. Will we see any further comment?
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The biggest distraction in the past two days has been comments from a judge of the Mumbai High Court who apparently asked someone why they had copies of War and Peace on their bookshelves. He further asked why one should have books about “foreign lands”. There was outrage and hilarity on social media after this, at a judge being so ignorant about Leo Tolstoy’s classic mammoth novel about the Napoleonic wars.
Then a defence of this judge began from the legal community to say that reporters had misrepresented the judge and of course he had heard of Leo Tolstoy. Well, maybe he had and maybe he hadn’t. I am not one to shy away from criticising journalists (ha ha!) but read this link and work it out for yourself. I extract only this quote:
“The title of the CD ‘Rajya Daman Virodhi’ itself suggests it has something against the State while ‘War and Peace’ is about a war in another country. Why did you (Gonsalves) keep objectionable material such as books like ‘War and Peace’, books and CDs at home? You will have to explain this to the court,” Justice Kotwal had said.”
https://www.news18.com/news/india/elgar-parishad-case-bombay-high-court-judge-says-he-knew-tolstoys-war-and-peace-was-a-literary-classic-2289371.html?fbclid=IwAR0sMtHKZIV64rYWE-iBNPpDhmgzzYoNsl66cQvoAv2oE0aDB1reSvVthkQ
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At the end, some interesting news. A new Twitter phenomenon has emerged! #AltSarkar is a spoof government, which fights back against fascism with satire! Join in:
https://qz.com/india/1697607/spoof-indian-government-altsarkar-makes-governance-fun-on-twitter/amp/
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She is also Consulting Editor, MxMIndia. Her views here are personal