Post the NDTV ruckus that rocked the Indian blogosphere a few days ago, many of us attempted to get a reaction out of our esteemed mainstream media.
I emailed Barkha Dutt, requesting her comments on the matter. I am still to receive a response. I also mailed some other mainstream media outlets, asking if they considered the story worth some attention. Here too, I was met with silence.
NDTV and Barkha Dutt, by and large, have ignored the angry voices and are either waiting for things to cool down, or simply don’t care about what we, their audience, think of them.
But the following news just came in. I consider it something of a victory.
Vishal Dadlani (music director), had created an online petition against the insensitive reporting of the Mumbai terror attacks by many TV news channels. The petition was signed by thousands and was eventually submitted to the Bombay High Court on November 30, 2008. Here is an excerpt:
Another question I’d like to ask is whether it’s correct, both morally and legally, for a TV channel to broadcast to the Nation, an alleged live phone call, purportedly from one of the terrorists. The perpetrators of a colossal crime against our Nation, being allowed to air their vitriolic propaganda on one of our own news channels! Does this seem wrong to anyone else?
The full petition (along with a scanned copy of the version that was submitted to the court) can be found here.
An email just came in with an update on the progress of the petition. It states:
Good news for all of us who have signed this petition. As far as we know, our Petition will be on the board of the Bombay High Court on Thursday (5th February, 2009) this week, which means, it is now a PIL, and the state machinery will fight this case on our behalf.
The channels will be called upon to make explanations and defend their conduct, and hopefully it will end in there being an enforce-able code-of-conduct for the TV Channels in times of national crisis!
I can be reasonably sure the case won’t receive much attention by our much-loved TV news channels. Why would they allow themselves to be judged by us? The court is bad enough.
As for me, this is good news enough for one day. God bless you Vishal Dadlani!
Update: (6:14 pm, February 2) Just so we are clear, I do not want media censorship. But I do want a serious warning to be sent their way. So they know some lines should not be crossed. As of now, I do not expect regulatory laws to be put in place.
Its high time that we had a code of conduct for mainstream media which is powerful and organized. They create and manipulate news everytime. This time it got noticed.
So should terrorists be censored?
No. Nobody should be. But I am talking about speech only mind you.
If a terrorist is on a level playing field with all of us… on a platform… he should be able to say whatever he wants.
But if he/she takes hostages and kills people to make hiself or herself heard, then no.
Thanks Vimoh.
You’re opening a can of worms.
Should Raj Thackeray be censored? (Many people believe him to be a terrorist.)
(Disclosure: I’m not taking the side of terrorists. I’m making a stand against passing a law on censorship of ANYTHING.
My opinion is – the media should have been smart enough to not run the telephone calls. But I don’t want laws passed because our media was ratings hungry at one point of time. The government should not force the media on any issue at all.)
I like worms.
Raj Thackeray, if he beats up people to make himself heard, SHOULD be censored. He is welcome to talk of anything he wants. Even swear at North Indians. But if he has to beat up people for screen time, he loses his right to freedom of speech. (my opinion)
Yes. The media should have been smart. And that is exactly I want them to be told by the court. I am against any kind of restrictions as well. But I will be happy to see a block on the ‘unsmart’ channels’ TRPs for a limited time at least.
Should we ban books and movies on Bhagat Singh? (He was considered a terrorist too. He killed people.)
Censorship is never a good idea. Even if the message being run is against your liking.
Moving on…
Millions of Indians didn’t switch off their TV sets or even change the channel when the terrorist phone calls were running on TV. Should the government punish them too? If the unsmart channels should be blocked – shouldn’t the unsmart people be flogged too?
@ankesh No. Because books on Bhagat Singh don’t kill people. Millions of people watched the news channels for news. It was the responsibility of the channels to give us news. But we saw them cross lines of propriety. That was wrong.
@amit I have not lost faith in the media. And I don’t want them censored either. I want them warned. I want them held accountable for not being responsible and for putting TRPs before the lives of people.
I do not debate what happened on 26/11 on our TVs. And if you are asking me for exact answers on what rules should be made to make sure that does not happen again, I don’t know the answer to that either. I don’t support censorship. But I don’t support irresponsibility on part of the media either.
Have to go with Ankesh here, no censorship.
As far as I remember, lots of media started self censoring themselves after the initial fiasco.
If you completely lose all faith in any of the pillars of democracy as an institution (media in this case), there is no hope left.
It’s one thing to ask news channels to behave responsibly, quite another to ask the state to curb the national media’s powers. It would be sad if the latter happens in a country like ours. There’s already enough state interference holding up a great deal of our progress.
I am hoping the latter won’t happen.
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