By Ranjona Banerji
There are videos doing the social media rounds of opposition politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Kanhaiya Kumar pushing back against questions from TV reporters which they feel are biased or loaded. Some journalists have shared these videos as examples of what happens when the media is seen as biased and unprofessional. Others, often those who work in TV, are upset that these politicians are shooting the messenger and the reporters were just doing their job.
Yes, shooting the messenger happens often. Journalists sometimes face the consequences of the news they make public.
But the is a subtle difference when those in the media act as government spokespersons and when the media gets into trouble with the government for not being a media spokesperson. The first act destroys media credibility to such an extent that occasionally those on the ground face the anger or sarcasm of those whom they question on behalf of the government. But the second is far more dangerous because it destroys democracy. And this is where we are.
Remember the farmers? They knew they would not get a fair hearing from India’s mainstream media. That is why several media representatives were asked to leave their protest sites. It starts here: the media pretended through the protests that the farmers had blocked the roads and inconvenienced the public. It was only when the matter went to the courts and the government admitted that the police had put up blockades that it was clear just who had created the inconvenience. By then we were at the end of the protests but the media’s perfidy was clear.
The same thing had happened at the Shaheen Bagh protests against CAA. The police had put up the barricades but the protesters were blamed. The bulk of the media was complicit.
A media which sides with the establishment has practically nothing to do with journalism. And thus, the poor reporters who asked loaded and not just the usual stupid questions had to face some sarcastic pushback and a bit of anger.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court NV Ramana, who started life as a journalist spoke at a book launch the other day, rueing the collapse of investigative journalism in India today: “When we were growing up, we eagerly looked forward to newspapers exposing big scandals. The newspapers never disappointed us. In the past, we have witnessed newspaper reports on scandals and misconduct creating waves leading to serious consequences. Barring one or two, I don’t recall any story of such magnitude in the recent years. Everything in our garden appears to be rosy.”
https://thewire.in/environment/concept-of-investigative-journalism-vanishing-from-media-canvas-cji-ramana
Of course, he is quite right. There is little investigative journalism because the cost of investigative journalism in India is very high. In fact, even regular journalism is dangerous. You stand to lose money, access and even your life. Your owners are either scared or agree with government policy. Most senior editors appear to have given up: cowardice for them is the better part of valour.
But as veteran journalist P Sainath points out to the Chief Justice in this excellent piece, where is our judiciary: “Perhaps the abject state of journalism could be somewhat improved if the judiciary confronted the reality that press freedom is at its lowest ebb in independent India’s history? The capacity for repression of the modern technological state – as you doubtless observed in dealing with the Pegasus case – dwarfs even the nightmares of the Emergency.
India plummeted to rank 142 in the World Press Freedom Index put out by the France-based Reporters Without Borders in 2020.”
https://thewire.in/media/to-the-cji-on-his-lament-that-investigative-journalism-is-vanishing-from-indian-media
The judiciary itself only appears to have recently woken to India’s democratic collapse, and perhaps celebratory five-star meals with expensive wine will be on hold for now.
Journalism is only one of the institutions which have collapsed.
So for those colleagues who are upset, dial back on government propaganda and who knows, when the scales fall from your eyes, actual journalism may appeal to you once again?
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal