Amogh Rohmetra
Republic of India is ranked 142 out of 180 countries in the freedom of press index, 2020 by ‘Reporters Without Borders’. “By completely depriving the Kashmir Valley’s 8 million inhabitants of Internet access, New Delhi also imposed the biggest electronic curfew in history” was one of the reasons for India to slip further for fourth consecutive year. The worrying part is, India is ranked behind countries like Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. Is it the politics, politicians or press, responsible for a free press ranked so low in a vibrant democracy like ours?
“The President has proclaimed Emergency. There is nothing to panic about,” one of the most iconic words in Indian independent history, when Indira Gandhi had announced the Emergency due to “internal disturbances”. Within hours politicians and journalists were arrested, electricity of media houses was cut down and in 3 days Information and Broadcasting minister was forced into resignation. It was one of the darkest periods in history. “According to the Home Ministry, in May of 1976, almost 7,000 journalists and media personnel were arrested” as per Times Now News. Then congress Government had set an example, how vital freedom of press is for any country. It was partly because there was absolute power with then Congress Government.
Prime Minister Modi is the first since Indira Gandhi, to have won two consecutive terms with absolute power or in other words, majority. So how has this Government, fared in terms of freedom of press? 3rd May is also the ‘World Press Freedom Day’.
“There were 40 killings of journalists between 2014-19 (in India). Of these, 21 have been confirmed as being related to their journalism” as per widely acknowledged report, ‘Getting Away with Murders’ by Geeta Seshu. Report also suggests that 198 Journalists were attacked, including 36 attacked in 2019 alone. The threatening part was a very low conviction rate in such cases. Since 2010, there have been over 30 cases of deaths of journalists due to their work. Convictions had been secured in only three of these cases till 2019.
As per Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ), India is in the list of ‘worst records in prosecuting those who murder journalists in direct retaliation for their work’. This data is a compilation of past one decade and it shows 17 unsolved such cases i.e. more than Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brazil and others.
Some of the notable cases of silencing the rising voices are those of Gauri Lankesh and Shujaat Bukhari. Gauri Lankesh was a strong critic of right wing politics and raised her voice through her Bengaluru based Newspaper. Shujaat Bukhari was the first journalist in over a decade to be killed in the valley in 2018. While these were shot dead, Jagendra Singh was burnt alive in the state of U.P. Irfan Hussain, a senior cartoonist in the Outlook was kidnapped and murdered in UP. Shivraj Singh Raju, a journalist with a regional newspaper was beaten-up and then forced to drink liquor mixed with urine in Punjab as per Geeta Seshu’s report.
Has media become too ‘liberal’ and thus asks wrong questions to the administration?
India had total of 121 internet shutdowns in 2019 as per ‘Reporters Without Borders’ and it also states that India uses the maximum shut downs. Shutdowns are widely viewed as a source to silence the journalists. After the abrogation of sections of Article 370, it was little known what was going on in the Kashmir valley. Even though, decision being right or wrong can always be debated. With communication gone, nothing could be reported for days and months. Only the Government’s view was known for a long while.
Modi Government has been widely criticised for a recent trend of banning the news channel. In 2016, NDTV was banned by the Government for a day for its coverage on the Pathankot attack. “This is the first time ever that a news channel has been barred from broadcasting for breaching national security laws in the country” as per Hindustan Times. NDTV is widely seen as a critic of the Government. This move was globally condemned by various independent bodies. Later the Government had put a hold on the ban but it was a message more than a mere action.
Last year, The Print reported, central Government had banned advertisements for three major newspapers, namely, Times of India, The Hindu and The Telegraph. Usually advertisements are based on readership but unusual exceptions were made this time. These measures were seen because these publications were critical towards the Government and did not hesitate to cover issues like Rafale deal. It is not a very recent tool, as advertisements for Gujarat Samachar and Rajasthan Patrika were banned during the Congress regime as well. Financial advantage was taken by the earlier Governments too.
Apart from this, various senior journalists have reported high pressure while covering the critical news of the BJP Government, especially when Prime Minister Modi is mentioned. “From being told not to take Narendra Modi’s name on my show or show his image on any programme critical of the Government to a sinister blacking out of my show, Masterstroke, what happened was nothing short of censorship” reported The Wire, story of senior ABP news journalist, Punya Prasun Bajpai who was forced to resign soon. After a night in his prime time show about Prime Minister Modi, where he showed how officials tried to manipulate the facts about a particular scheme, he said “On the following news night, ABP’s satellite link started misbehaving during primetime. The disturbance continued for an hour so that viewers would be prevented from watching Masterstroke”. He was often seen critical and active in bringing out facts against the Government before he was forced into resignation.
In another instance from ABP, Abhisar Sharma was put off air while he was live because he was taking name of Prime Minister and questioning him regarding an incident. This had upset the CEO and eventually he had to resign as reported by Newslaundry. Hindustan Times editor Bobby Ghosh had to resign under similar suspected conditions earlier. There might be many more stories one suspects.
Anti Government reporting is usually tagged as anti- national. Thereafter media persons are harassed by various IT cells set up. Critical media houses have often seen fall in advertisement and BJP ministers boycott their events. These events cannot be only based on opposition and thus turn out to be a failure. Whereas favourable news channels have often witnessed Prime Minister himself attending the event.
“They (reporters) have also been attacked by pro-Government political activists, as in Bangladesh, Philippines and India. India’s Hindu nationalist right is also an example of the extraordinary intolerance that religious extremists have shown towards journalists who don’t share their views” has been reported in the 2020 report of Freedom of Press Index.
Do we become anti-nationals by questioning the Government? Or these measures are used to send messages to the free press?
But sometimes it seems irresponsible media is equally responsible for our low ranking. It is so because a generation of journalists who are ready to compromise their principles. The growing practice of yellow journalism has been seen with people trying to communalise every issue including the coronavirus. Such type of journalism has provoked new names for the press like ‘Godi Media’ or ‘Presstitute’.
Today people target media, as journalism has turned more about financial survival and voice of people is suppressed. Some editors every evening shout so loud that they try to silence the democracy more than people. Why is it so important to draw communal angle in everything whenever India as a whole country suffers?
But it is not only those agencies accountable for the plight; it is also we the readers. We need to boycott Yellow Journalism and move towards Journalism of truth and honesty. But does bad journalism actually affect us?
Ongoing crisis is one such example. Had China an absolute free press, it wouldn’t have been possible to hide the virus from the world for a long time. If it had been reported on time, world would have been better prepared and thus saving a myriad of people from getting affected.
Even though India is much better than these countries but we might be heading towards a threatening path. Press is considered as the fourth pillar of democracy and so comes a duty from the people and press as well. It is not a mere business but it is the loudest voice in a democracy. It has played a vital role in Regaining our freedom twice, The Independence and Emergency. We shouldn’t see another such time ahead of us ever.
It is always important to reject the politics and journalism of hate and accept righteousness with ethics. Else only the worst crisis can teach the best of lessons.
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