Media’s Delimma or?

Saurabh Thapa

It is very inappropriate to say that the Press of India is not free, though it has its own limitations that are infact drawn by themselves. There are many instances where the freedom of the press has been in question. May it be the recent case of the cartoonist Aseem Trivedi or the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Sahara Company’s plea to stop the reportage of their ongoing trials. There have been numerous discussions on the media, specially the electronic medium, regarding these matters, where there appeared various personalities with their own personal views. But still the question remains intact that, Is the media doing what it needs to do?

Objectivity is something that should bind any hand that tries to write any news report meant to be read by the common people. But it has been now that, objectivity is often been looked down upon and there appears some sort of biasness, when it comes to the economy part. Now, it appears the media to be in a dilemma when it comes to be in between the government and the big corporate houses. In the process, inorder to seek favours or to maintain a good relation with both the two, the media often tends to ignore its main responsibility, i.e. to bring out the facts before the people and play an adversary role.

It is very important for any media to find out the wrong doings and lay it before the common mass. Investigative journalism is a very powerful tool to do so, and is often feared by even the biggest personalities as well. But there have been very few cases in India, where the media has brought out big scams and scandals before the public. ‘Tehelka.com’ roused a big fire when it first disclosed a scam in the media. But, was it sufficient? is another question. It can be analysed that the decade’s biggest scams were more unveiled by common men than the media. May it be the 2G spectrum scam or the Coalgate scandal, one was revealed by a high court lawyer and the other by the C.A.G (Controller of Audit General) report. What was the media’s role in it? The media simply followed the story that was already boiling and just reported who said what to whom. This has been proved more by the recent Robert Vadra (son-in-law of the U.P.A’s chief Sonia Gandhi) case.

The I.A.C (India Against Corruption) member and co-founder Arvind Kejriwal has recently laid some questions before the Congress, D.L.F and Robert Vadra, on Vadra’s boost of property from Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 300 crores. He had alleged that Vadra has been provided with an unsecured loan in the name of Rs 65 crore, Rs 85 crores. Also brought out that the current U.P.A government is providing it’s chief’s son-in-law unreasonable favours. He has even said to be exposing some other prominent politicians on the 10^th of October. Hence, the media is in wait for the time to arrive, so that there will be more to write in that matter. But, here arises the problem. Why does the media needs to wait for that moment? Why the media needs to be dependent upon some other source? Why doesn’t the media check the facts for themselves and act more as a whistle blower?

When we examine the reportage by the media on the matter, we can find a similar kind of resemblance of behaviour within all the national newspaper houses, i.e. their neutrality. It is very interesting to know that the media just stood numb and acted more as a third party. Isn’t it more logical for the media to be further active in these kinds of matters then that by others and be involved more? The Indian media scenario is very interesting in its own terms. At one point of time, argues bout the absence of absolute freedom of press in the country and in the other hand doesn’t act accordingly. It can be understood that being on the other side can jeopardise their financial conditions but why doesn’t it adapts the example of some sincere (as it claims to be) media like the ‘factscheck.org’ (produced and published by the University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A). This website contains information about their financial sponsorships as well as to show the absence of any political party influences.

Therefore, the Indian media though has done a great deal with their media trials and some revolutionary writings, but it’s a fact that the media in India still needs to develop their investigative department. Gone should be the days when the media to be waiting for any information from the third party. Being one of the most powerful tools of democracy, it should function as it is expected. One doesn’t insist the media to be always on the opposite side but rather it is expected to act responsibly and it should not forget for whom and for what it is functioning, for the good of the common people. Hence, the Indian media has yet to learn more about their responsibilities (or they do this intentionally) and keeping a note of the past wrong doings and as well has to overcome what has be ignored or neglected. Thus, the Media to play an adversary role is very important for democracy to survive.