With the much valued media freedom having reached its acme and even extended itself to crude intrusions into private grief, ailment, distress and such personal matters which are ordinarily of no interest to the public, many questions agitate a thinking mind despite inherent respect for the institution.
Basking under very weak defamation laws and their kinked implementation, coupled with a toothless Press Council, with a few honorable exceptions, the press is emerging as a highly opinionated conscience keeper of the society. Buckling under competitive one man up ship, itâs ridiculous hurry to break news takes a heavy toll of professional balance, truth and authenticity. Sensationalizing is the order of the day. Press churns out spice, sensation and scandal infinitum, which people have to swallow with tons of salt. Professional approach is largely lacking while individual, political and corporate agendas are unabashedly pursued.
An opinionated press does not report, rather it insinuates. It does not subscribe to reason, it imposes its own views on the people. It has instant verdicts, some delivered after a sham media trial, and others even without that. It liberally offers half baked solutions to intricate issues, with a cocksure tone and tenor. A cub reporter would dismiss the other point of view, howsoever cogent it may be, because it does not fit into what his child ego state dictates. Some anchors in the electronic media behave like morons and keep on howling at the person they interview for as much as 20 minutes out of 30 minutes of the interview. Most of TV reporters, without any qualms, ask leading questions from laymen on the street with a view to solicit the desired answers as they wish.
Tehlakas and Cobras have done a commendable job, so do the others who film politicians and public servants accepting bribes. There is however, again with a few honorable exceptions, a vast multitude of members of the Press and electronic media who hobnob with these very elements which a section of them strives to expose. There are large number of reporters who are self proclaimed advisers and well known lobbyists of political leaders and business concerns as well as of the crooks, while a few others act as brokers and conduits of all sorts of powers that be. Many press reporters have side-kick sham publications, advertising and other agencies, and they arm-twist people to dole out bounties for them. Many of them are news vendors. They are not public servants in terms of the law of the land, and therefore their disproportionate assets and gravest professional misconduct attracts a Nelsonâs eye from enforcement agencies.
Press is selective in its exposures. Hardly has any newspaper and media channel ever exposed their own reporters and editors. All is well for them on their own front. The newspaper or media channel establishments are highly protective of their own delinquents for the fear of inviting an aspersion on the overall professionalism of the newspaper itself. Even when the reality stares at their face, they do not publish the expose with a mug shot front page banner, but discreetly allow the delinquent a safe passage to some other publication or channel.
The newspapers and channels do not have the courage to publish or air the rejoinders verbatim. They allow the contradicted reporter to be a judge in his own cause to pooh pooh the reaction and thus add an insult to the injury he had calculatedly inflicted. There is no newspaper or channel which exhibits the moral courage of leaving half a page of its space every day or a specific air-time to publish or telecast word by word and line by line the response it receives from its readers or viewers. The Press enjoys freedom of expression, but not the people it addresses, because they are denied an equal platform of expression.
Freedom of the Press is certainly vital to the sound health of our democracy; so is the freedom of the people from tyranny of a âFree Pressâ
