The latest scandal gripping India concerns top journalists - and this has prompted many to say "we don't trust the media." But the media is not a monolith. There are many, many newspapers, magazines, TV stations and the like - and it needs to be appreciated that, in this case, two separate magazines have have exposed the wrongdoings of these journalists.
Once again, the institution that comes into play is Property. Each separate voice in the media is a piece of Private Property - and it is the existence of all these diverse bits of Property that serve to make the media free. Of course, all will not be truthful and unbiased - and that is why Competition matters so much. So, instead of slamming the media wholesale, as many are now doing, I would argue for more freedom of the press. We need more TV channels to compete with the now discredited NDTV. We need free radio too. Then, just as blogs, which are bits of Property, have given freedom to many voices like mine, there will be more opinions being aired, and the people will be far better informed.
Let it never be forgotten that, if India did not possess this great institution of the free press, the only opinions being aired would be those of The State - as with Doordarshan, AIR or Pravda. That would be truly horrible, and truth would die. In the bad old days of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, almost every top journalist in Delhi was an agent of The State - and lived in a government bungalow in a VIP enclave. Those days, The Times of India was "an extension of The State" - as one old hand told me. So, let us appreciate press freedom - and let us demand more of it.
Turning our attention to the scandal that is rocking Indian journalism today, it seems the Income Tax Department tapped the phone of a corporate "fixer" - a PR agent of sorts, a kind of influence peddler - and this woman, Nira Radia, spoke to some very big names in Indian journalism, including Barkha Dutt of NDTV and Vir Sanghvi of the Hindustan Times. Transcripts of these conversations have been published - and they don't read like principled journalism. You can read the one relating to Barkha Dutt here; and the one with Vir Sanghvi here. There are others as well. But then, as I have said, the solution lies in greater freedom of the press, in more competition.
[For more on the scandal, I recommend these two posts from the blog Sans Serif, here and here.]
What I would like to add is that in India we have a long history of good journalists being co-opted into The State. There was MJ Akbar - who joined the CONgress. There was Arun Shourie - who joined the BJP. There is Chandan Mitra, also with the BJP - and a permanent guest at the Barkha Dutt show. There are many others. Journalists are always in close contact with politicians and bureaucrats and, because of their power over public opinion, they are courted. Many succumb. They give up their power - which lies only in their independence.
So, there is a lesson in all this for all our young journalists - and that is, stay fiercely independent.
MY GOD! This is mind-boggling. I had heard rumours about the alleged involvement of some journalists. But somehow this issue slipped out of my mind. Now I feel as if I have been living on Planet Mars for all this time.
ReplyDeleteI don’t buy Open magazine, but now I think that I should.
This is a great blog by Sauvki Charaverti, only now I am learning about the intimacy that exists between our Super-Senior Journalists and the power brokers.
I will never watch a particular channel or read a particular newspaper again. I can't bear to look at the faces of these people again. Thank God, we have other channels and newspapers in this country.
It is a great tragedy that one of the most supreme goddesses in the history of Indian TV has turned out to be having feet of clay. But how can such eminent people, who are at the forefront of media revolution in the country, succumb to the lure of money and power! These guys already have everything.
Everyone who holds Indian media in high respect must be disturbed by this information. If our media has been corrupted, then there is nothing left in this country.
These Super-Senior Journalists should resign from their top posts. They should stop appearing on TV, so that viewers don't feel offended by their smiling and smug faces.
@Anoop: On Sunday night, out of curiosity, I tuned into the Barkha Dutt show on NDTV - and guess what? The show was dedicated to a discussion of the merits and demerits of "reality shows" on TV! This, while there is so much to discuss on both the political and economic fronts. It is said that one of the most important powers possessed by the media is the power to decide as to what subjects are debated. In this case, it is clear, that this power is being misused to discuss irrelevancies, while keeping vital issues off the agenda. NDTV needs competition.
ReplyDelete@Sauvik, I agree with you completely. In fact, before I read these transcripts on the links from your blog, I had been wondering why NDTV is shying from taking a strong stand on this 2G scam issue.
ReplyDeleteBut now all kind of suspicious motives can be attributed to this channel. Questions can be raised. Are being raised.
This channel was the one that started the trend of 24 hour news cycles on TV, but now they have become part of the establishment. Instead of being vendors of real news, they seem to be promoting pseudo-news. This is a big tragedy. The fall of a brand.
I sincerely hope that the owners of this private channel will take the necessary measures to win back the public faith. After all, in the long run reputation and credibility are worth more than any amount of money.
I am also of the opinion that being too close to centres of power is bad for a media organisation. Because once you are too close to the powerful, you become a celebrity, who can only voice opinions that are deemed “politically correct.”
That is the problem with many sections of our media, they have started sounding too “political correct.”