:: Antara Dev Sen

Media must draw a line, not wait for govt diktat

Antara Dev Sen

So we have staved off the information and broadcasting ministry’s attempt to slap new guidelines and regulations on the media. We will handle it ourselves, thank you, we have said once again, don’t interfere, don’t even think of trimming the freedom of the press.

But after the spirited jingoism and reckless television coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks, you couldn’t really fault the government for demanding media guidelines that could contain our unbridled enthusiasm. We have been going boldly where no responsible journo has gone before — into premises where armymen are fighting terrorists or the NSG is trying to rescue hostages, into the private space of the grief-stricken, even into the mind of the terrorist. We are the valiant mutant ninja hacks, we scoff at the rules of the game, we bow only to the god of audience ratings.

The Mumbai attacks saw TV news run riot. It was no different from the rioting and looting that follows any violence, where people plunder at will. Only instead of snatching a cash box or television set from a shop in a danger zone, they were snatching soundbites and indiscriminate footage. Looters don’t worry about ethics. And while our intrepid reporters were crowding around the security forces and broadcasting rescue strategies, anchors and other talking heads concentrated on drumming up mob hysteria. Pakistan is the enemy, they shouted. Bomb them! Kill them! Bring in the Army! Throw out the politicians! Let the battle commence!

To pump up their diatribe, television channels gathered a range of celebrities who glamorously raged against politicians and Pakistan. It was star-studded jingoism. The people of India will no longer tolerate this, they roared, stop paying taxes! And focused squarely on the attacks on the Taj and the Oberoi hotels, ignoring the shooting at the CST train station, the real lifeline of Mumbai, where scores of ordinary mortals were killed.

"Enough is enough!" screamed 24-hour news channels as they replayed footage of the attacks ad nauseum, falsely flashing the ubiquitous "Breaking News" logo. Mikes were thrust into the faces of the recently bereaved. "What are you feeling now?" The media carried on its savage attack, powered by mindless questions and shameless scrutiny and the unwavering, obscene stare of the television camera at the very private moment of grief.

If most English news channels made you cringe, most Hindi channels made you want to flee. Predictably unbearable, they donned the mantle of third class theatre and proceeded to pull lustily at the heartstrings of the not so subtle: Why did this happen? Why did they do it? Who are these heartless terrorists? What did they have against these innocent victims? Where will this poor orphaned child go? Do they have no pity, these cold-blooded killers from Pakistan?

Drumming up hysteria against Pakistan and manipulating public opinion to encourage war between two nuclear powers is not just unprofessional and unethical, it is also unbelievably stupid. It is bad enough to air our intolerance and irrationality, it is surreal to exhibit our glee at playing the brainless ringleader whipping a hurt nation into a lynch-mob. Patriotism and nationalism were bandied about, the Tricolour stared at you relentlessly as the talking heads bayed for Pakistani blood.

To top it all, there were constant appeals to "citizen journalists", the new breed of news-gatherers who help channels cut costs. Otherwise sensible young men and women run wild, seeking a newsworthy shot or two, completely ignorant of journalistic ethics or security concerns. Which was not far from what regular reporters were doing. But with no police cordon, it was perhaps natural for any adrenaline-charged reporter to sniff around for more. What are editors and producers for? They know where to draw the line, what to broadcast and what to spike, and how to present a coherent picture out of the flood of raw data. Sadly, they were missing in action.

So every move of the security forces was broadcast live. The forces complained that the terrorists were getting all their tactical information from the media. Live TV detailed which rooftop they were on, which building they were preparing to fire from, how long it would take the NSG to arrive, what arms they had. It was an unequal fight. And it endangered the lives of our security forces and the hostages. Some hostages later said that live coverage disclosing where they were hiding (TV reporters fished it out of distraught friends/relatives who were in touch over the phone) prompted the terrorists to find them.

Irresponsible coverage encourages censorship. It would be tragic if our admirable media — always free, generally fair, routinely confrontational — is shackled because of the unethical, irresponsible behaviour of some TV channels. Besides, media needs credibility, and hysteria devalues it. Finally, feeding on others’ grief in a voyeuristic orgy is not sharing. It’s just wrong.

On a lesser level, it was wrong to focus so much on BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s comment that those who wear lipstick or suits don’t represent all Indians. Or on Kerala chief minister Achyutanandan’s chillingly callous remark on being thrown out by martyred hero Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s father. Politicians do vile things, let’s highlight those. We cannot treat every silly comment they make as a national shame. We need to retain our sense of balance.

Unfortunately, coverage of the Mumbai attacks was not an aberration. Channels routinely cast decency to the winds as they invade people’s grief. Remember the tsunami coverage? And whipping horror-struck viewers into a lynch mob is another new habit. We saw it in the Aarushi murder case in Noida, where television presented the father as the monster who kills his own daughter, brought in a dubious sex angle, and through incessant repetitions, curious graphics, high drama and low morals dangerously incited the audience against him. We also saw it after the murder of slum kids in Noida — where the audience was practically provoked to attack Surinder, the domestic help who claimed under police interrogation that he raped and killed children and ate their livers.

The morphing of news as information into news as entertainment has blurred both our vision and the once inviolable line between reality and drama. The Mumbai coverage showed that we have reached the danger mark. Unless checked, things will get worse as competition intensifies among the ever-proliferating news channels. Voluntary self regulation doesn’t seem to be working. We need something stronger to make us, the mutant ninja journos, stick to the rulebook. But it can’t be government control.

Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at sen@littlemag.com