By Ranjona Banerji
The Editors Guild of India did the most unconscionable thing imaginable in today’s “New India”. It sent a fact-finding mission to Manipur, to assess the situation on the ground and investigate the ongoing anarchy in the state. For this, the Manipur state government, led by Chief Minister N Biren Singh of the BJP, filed FIRs against Guild members for trying to “create more clashes in the state”. The four members who have been targeted are all very senior, respected journalists with years of experience: Bharat Bhushan, Seema Guha, Sanjay Kapoor and Seema Mustafa.
Singh has just followed, to the T, instructions from the BJP playbook when faced with any criticism. Blame the messenger, the truth-seeker, the whistle-blower. Earlier, Congress politician Rahul Gandhi had been blamed for the violence by the BJP, egged on by sections of the “media”, because he made a visit to Manipur weeks after the violence began.
The Editors Guild team found that the media in the state had been “transformed into a Meitei media” and wrote “one-sided” reports to favour the Meiteis. These now ceaseless clashes between Meiteis and Kukis began in May.
The Supreme Court of India stepped in and stayed the police action until a hearing on September 11.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/sc-protects-editors-guild-members-from-arrest-over-manipur-reports-541975
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/editorial/unconscionable-action-against-editors-guild-2675974
Eventually, the chickens will come home to roost. Although as ever the mainstream media remains silent about the constant attacks on media freedom by Government, the consequences of these assaults will now be felt at all levels. For how long the courts can and will continue to protect us – for what it’s worth – remains to be seen.
The actions of the Biren Singh government are blatant. The authorities remain unaffected by the outrage over continuing anarchy and violence in Manipur. The short burst of anger after videos of Kuki women being paraded naked and assaulted is now forgotten. The mainstream media was happy with a bland and meaningless statement on Manipur by the Prime Minister months after the violence began. And an eminent fact-finding team of journalists is attacked by the government for searching for facts.
Those who were already scared by government action have received one more hammer message: all praise or else.
Various Central governments have said as much to reporters who dared to ask pesky questions: we know your bosses, we will set the ED on you, and so on. This sort of behaviour is now accepted as normal and seen as par for the course.
I can guarantee you that I will now get well-meaning explanations from the general public, as if I don’t know this, about how the media is “bought”, “scared”, and so on. As if any of those are acceptable excuses for the non-practice of journalism.
It is true, as consumers of news are so kind to inform me, that the practice of journalism has been totally degraded. But this has happened largely by the TV channels which people still love to watch. In spite of the total garbage that they churn out.
The latest travesty comes from India Today TV, the “gold standard” of journalism. According to well-known public mythology expert Devdutt Pattanaik, he was invited for an evening yelling match on the whole drama over “India or Bharat” triggered by the Modi Government’s sudden use of “President of Bharat”, instead of India, for the G20 summit’s official dinner. He could not attend so he sent a video clip.
This clip was then edited and presented as a “debate” between him and BJP-government spokesperson on historical matters, Sanjeev Sanyal.
This practice may or may not be followed by TV channels regularly, but it is still bad form. You cannot have a “debate” if one person is not present to refute and correct positions taken against him or her.
It is a blatant exercise at insulting your guests and treating your viewers like fools.
I suppose that sums up the TV media. For me at least.
How low can we sink?
We ain’t seen nothing yet, the rate we’re going at!
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.