The Lost Pillar

 

           The whole rational behind free journalism is simple that they should provide the larger population the information and they shall speak truth to power. And not only they help in preserving the edifice of state but they even strengthen the trust in Public Institution . They are key channel of transport of inputs from public to governments. They not only help establishment and maintain peace but also provide an opportunity to scrutinize ones own policy decisions. Usually there exist some profession which we don't really think of as important as we think of other and most of the time these professions after their disappearance looks so necessary for even daily needs. What if we don't get to know what is happening in our city? Who has won election? Was those election fair or mala-fide? Is the government working for public good?

         We must understand the simple truth that this thing called GOVERNMENT is so so so BIG that even if you try to find some blot here and there you won't be able to survive. Good journalism is not privilege but more of necessity. You can't and should not trust the authority in whose giant hands you have given both the powers, power of creating law as well power of implementing the law and even beyond that power of interpreting the law. And that's essentially necessitates the idea of good and free journalism, there has to have someone who can make sure that nothing remains behind the curtains.  Everything  has to be presented before Janata Janardan . 

        Secrecy in government is beginning of arbitrary law. Democracy is not a one institution alone rather it is collective whole of various non elected institution as well elected institution. Democracy is not ready-made political system but it is process of creating free and better society which eventually   elect the political leadership. As we entrust with our political leadership the vision of ours, similarly we shall entrust some non elected but capable people with power to ask questions.

      If we go back to 19th century or early 20th century, newspaper were the only source of knowledge and fortunately they were credible and they were not source of income for the editors. There was never any profit motive behind press journalism. Even the emergency era, Ram Nath Goenka, stalwart of Indian journalism and founder of Indian Express did not earn any profit from selling newspaper rather his businesses suffered after taking anti- emergency stand. India should be proud of such heritage which not all countries enjoy.

       After the advent of Television and state maintained channel like Doordarshan. News was never 24/7 affair. From 1960 to 1990 Indian watched news on which censorship was maintained by government but even in those times channel enjoyed fair amount of autonomy. But the new era in news business began when private players entered in this domain. Beginning with Zee news and NDTV and now current Wikipedia figure stand for 857+ channels .

         What really changed after such burst of channels? Has it helped the Indian polity to become more transparent or has it really made us more proactive citizens? How these channels pull more audience than even entertainment channels? Why do news channel charge more than any other channel for advertisement? What has changed is, the economics of news channel has become such complex phenomenon that everyone is in race of becoming number 1 because common understanding of business world would tell us that business of  advertisement is zero sum game , either you are number 1 or nothing. So the race begins and rather than what is important, channels opt for where is Masala, Where is controversy? and ratings has now became new normal. If most people watch your channel then you are speaking truth otherwise not.

          There is nothing problematic about making journalism a business but what should be kept in mind that the only important factor in this business is credibility .Once its get eroded there is no other way to make it profitable. The way most popular news channels are being run on assumption that normal middle class population love to watch the tamasha journalism of studios. This assumption gets more fuel when the establishment, The people who are in power promote these "Journalists". 

          When prime minister selectively prefer some channels over other then it becomes easy for others to find some or other profit of interest motives. Even if you try to find the guest list of Rashtrapati Bhavan you can easily highlight some frequent visitors. What has happened is our political culture which we used to regard very high, the culture of making friends with opposition, having a cup of tea with noted journalist, academics ,regional leaders has not remained the norm. 

          when 2016 Democrats Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says  "If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.”,  She is highlighting the fact that how easy it is to remove the important stories from front pages of newspaper and news channels and this is what today's media remained . Our country is in great turmoil, on east it is facing giant like china , in home we have dead economy , pandemic, strained relations between state and centre . On social front we have migration of magnitude which has only seen once in history when india was divided, communities are divided over communal issues. On political front we have weakest opposition which is incapable of doing its duty, Broken Judicial system, Bureaucracy and Administration rather following its constitutional duty is serving the political leadership. 63 lakh biharis are affected by recent flood, Their lives are destroyed. People were walking all across 700 km, 800km, 900km to reach their villages.

                     Even then these are not our stories but a tragic death of proven drug addict actor is now national news. Same has happened on 6th of February when the opposition under leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan famously known as JP called for a rally on Ramlila Maidan and to not let people attend this mega rally Indira Gandhi called her minister of IT to broadcast the hit film "BOBBY" starring charming Rushi Kapoor and beautiful Dimple Kapadia , Mrs. Gandhi tried to downplay the anger of normal people and she faced defeat.

                      Unfortunately we have lost that pillar, what has remained is couple of bricks here and there so task of conscious citizen becomes more challenging when the channel of communication itself is either a slave of government or being broken by government. But hope is not bad thing to have. We shall strive for the journalism which makes the news of powerless individual a national issue. Journalism which questions the government on the issues which are necessary for bringing The lost ,The least and The last person onto visible spectrum of public eye.

                     Democracy is messy affair, everyone knew that, Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar knew that. Sardar Patel knew that. But why did they choose this way. In Nehru's word it is "best among the worst". From the very day "we the people" of this nation adopted the constitution. We have been entrusted with the task of making it happen , Days will come when we might lose hope, We might not see any further but still we must walk because stopping does not help. The trust of our forefather in our ability of changing things comes from same hope which will give us a way ahead even if we have Lost The Pillar.