By D.N. Singh
It was really worrying to read into a report published in a website that the state of the media in India slowly dips into a pathetic low as regards speaking the truth. According to a report by the Reporters Without Border (RSF) India finds itself “placed at 140th spot out of the total 180 countries based on the state of journalism in the country “ .
In essence, if one goes by the trends prevalent in India, there is, of course, a feeling and that get manifested in reporting whether print or in the electronics media, one thing indeed comes to mind. That is when the entire political scenario is shielded by a kind of deceit, may be someone speaking the truth is faced by intolerance which often leads to threats on the fraternity of journalism.
The report further said that “at least six journalists were murdered in 2018 “ and the report of the RSF adds that “the countries that which were considered to be safe for journalists have deteriorated over the course of time as the authoritarian regimes have started taking control of the media “.
A series of incidents in India also indicate at a state when journalism stands torn between two things i.e one is something that someone wants not to be reported and the rest, what a journalist reports, can be mere publicity for someone. That way journalism is at a kind of crossroad. As if it is driven by the desires of someone getting promoted through ads and what really skips or not reported, is the real news. This can be described as acts of pandering to the whims of some who want truths not get reported.
This is the predicament that journalism in India, as may be elsewhere, faces. There were instances in the recent past in which any strong view against a system got interpreted as anti-national or revolutionary kind of thing. The RSF reports also underlines that “ countries like Afghanistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Maldives and Palestine ranked better than India “ is something quite challenging.
In a sub-headlines the report said that the “politicians hostile against journalists leads to violation “ . The report also claimed that the “ attacks by the supporters of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi against journalists continues to rise ahead of the general elections 2019”.
What is evident that the fear among journalists comes from two categories of people or leaders in the country. One who does not want a mention, so that requires suppression of the facts and the other likes to be elaborately named in the report who undisputedly wants free publicity of self or of the party.
From the time since politicians started to take newspapers or channels into their confidence and wanted that the reporting must not cross the ‘laxman rekha’ drawn by them, journalism faces the peril of being dependent.
(Cartoon courtesy Vidya Subrahmaniam, The Hindu)
