Politicians are not the only villains now. Journalists too have become villains

The last decade and a half has seen an unprecedented explosion in the growth of the media, specially audiovisual. Media has come to occupy centrestage, a platform on which political and other actors perform. If the world is a stage, showing on the closest screen near you is the television set.

For the privilege of capturing the theatrical happenings around the world and using one's power of discretion on what shall be showcased, the messengers and the medium gained an aura and a mystery that tickled public imagination and curiosity. No wonder then that journalists and the roles they play quite often became the subject films were inspired and influenced by.

From the idealistic, jhola-wala, stereotype who invariably was eliminated for daring to tell the truth to a cameraperson who becomes chief minister and brings in a political revolution (Mudhalvan in Tamil, Nayak in Hindi), the shades of the screen persona have evolved.

Politicians are not the only villains now. Journalists find themselves soaked in blood too big time, on the big screen. Time for some introspection and self-correction before `journalist' becomes a bad word just the way `politician' already has.

T S Sudhir in The Hoot. More Here

Osama is dead! Long live Print

The last word on the Osama bin Laden killing has not been spoken or written yet.  Questions are flying all over the world; there is a deliberate opaqueness in the selective information released by the United States that is fueling speculation and scepticism.

In such a situation what is the role of the media? Should it try and glean as much information as it can and put it out in the public realm before it launches into airing opinions?

Indian news channels, given their past record, routinely fail to provide essential information on a development before they start bombarding viewers with opinion. The hours after President Obama announced the success of his country’s operation to kill Osama bin Laden were not very different. It is true that little information was available barring what the President had announced. It is true that Indian channels do not have reporters in Pakistan and had to depend on feeds from Pakistani channels to get the first images and information.

But surely, in this day of the Internet, it would have been possible for news desks in this country to put out cogent information about the site of the attack, Abbotabad, and piece together background that would help viewers make better sense of the story. But if you watched only television, you were left with dozens of questions unanswered. So when May 3 dawned, it was a relief to turn to the print media to fill in the gaps in information.

Of course, in the middle of all the grim business, we got a bit of entertainment. For some channels, it was not Osama who had been killed but Obama! NDTV India was the first off the mark killing off the American President and through the evening, talking heads on other channels kept slipping up on the two names, making them virtually interchangeable. The prize for doing this repeatedly should probably go to the irrepressible Arnab Goswami of Times Now who repeated his trademark command performance by inviting Pakistanis to the channel and not allowing them to speak.

Kalpana Sharma in The Hoot. Here

I am a Muslim and I am not a terrorist

The case against me is nothing but a warning to the entire media, not to attempt to challenge the state. If you dare to do it, they will use draconian laws against you. If you belong to the minority community, they will also profile you. It is very difficult to prove that you are not a terrorist. It is equally difficult to prove that you are not a Maoist in our life and times.

In this era of paid news, I believe, it is important to speak for those who live on the margins, who are not able to pay.

I have always tried to give visibility to those who are invisible. This award espouses my efforts and gives me support and assurance in my way ahead.

K K Shahina in The Hoot. More Here. and Here and Here 

and the award winning report Here

The Media Foundation has chosen Shahina KK  as the winner of the Chameli Devi Award for an outstanding woman journalist. In her acceptance speech she spoke of her attempt to establish that the police conspired to forge a case against Abdul Naser Madani after the Bangalore blasts. ``I have always tried to espouse the cause of those who live on the margin and who cannot have their say,’’ she said.

She was awarded for work done while with Tehelka. She is now with Open magazine.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy : The REAL Issues missed by the media

The real issues therefore got pushed into the shadows, while the spotlight stayed on Anderson:

1. How and why did the government agree to settle for an eighth of the compensation it had initially demanded from Carbide? No questions asked, and so no answers given.

2. Why was even this absurd sum not distributed promptly among the victims? No questions, and no answers.

3. How and why did the Supreme Court do what it did, in reducing the charge to a less serious one? Ahmadi was questioned by Barkha Dutt, he came out with carefully bland answers, and it was left to her  to expose the then Chief Justice by getting the then CBI director, Madhavan, on the same show to tell it like it was.

4. And why, after 25 years, had the government not done its basic duty by the Bhopal victims, irrespective of whether Carbide had paid and whether Anderson was living out a peaceful retirement? No questions again, therefore no answers.

That these were the real issues became clear towards the end, as the new group of ministers got down to work on precisely the issue of relief and rehabilitation. Ministers who might have been in the dock for the post-Bhopal scandals of betrayal and neglect, could get away scot free while the Congress and the government got exercised about protecting Rajiv's fair name on a non-existent charge.

Not to worry, though. The TV news channels got their required quota of a scandal per week, and they milked it for all it was worth, so that the the eyeballs stayed glued.

Next week, there will be another scandal to rant about.  

From A Ramakrishnan's article in The Hoot. More Here.

Why everybody loves a bad fatwa?

Everybody loves a bad fatwa. And why not? Newspapers, for it fills the front page for its readers; Television channels, for it brings in the audience; communalists, for it plays into the image of Muslims as backwards; and activists, because it gives them a chance to reinforce their secular credentials. Never mind that this fatwa will not change the lives of millions of Muslims and may be text of the fatwa is not what it has been reported or may be the said fatwa doesn't even exist. 

A fatwa is nothing but a religious opinion from a religious scholar to a question asked by a Muslim on a particular situation that he or she may be facing or might face in future, and does not know what should be appropriate way to act in light of Islamic teachings. A mufti then issues a fatwa or opinion based on his understanding of the question and Islam. Just as different medical doctors will have difference of opinion regarding diagnosis and a treatment plan, it is common for different muftis to give different opinions on the same question. 

Media circus

At least once every year, on a slow news day, some enterprising journalist finds a fatwa that will fit the stereotype about Muslims being backward or Muslim scholars being ignorant or out of touch with the real world or both, and publish a news story based upon this 'prized' fatwa. Let's take the example of the fatwa issued by Darul Uloom Deoband that is making the round in news cycles this week. 

The fatwa in question was issued more than a month ago and one can ask, why the sudden interest by media in this particular fatwa? A fatwa that is only a sentence long has had numerous newspaper columns space and hours of airtime devoted to it. The media bosses have decided that it is an important fatwa because it has all the right keywords to keep the readers, audience, and therefore revenue coming in. 

One has to question the motive of the major media regarding this fatwa. There is more to this than meets the eye when the Indian media which is obsessed with breaking news and exclusives these days picks up a fatwa that was issued more than a month ago. Within 24 hours of this news being flashed on NDTV on Tuesday (May 11^th, 2010) this week, all major media of India have reported it. And every new report had added information that was not even there.

... .... ... ..... .... ... ...

One thing is clear that Muslims have no say or control over the media's actions, but that doesn't mean that they have to be passive. Polite but firm emails should be sent to reporters and their editors. Muslim community organizations should send a letter on their official letter-heads to the editors and seek meetings with the editorial staff. In these meetings, examples of serious lapses by media when reporting on issues related to Muslims should be brought to their attention.

Media is not a one-way street and they don't exist in vacuum. In this day and age, readers and viewers have much more power than anyone would like to acknowledge. This power should be used to demand correct and factual coverage. At the same time Muslims need to take these kinds of episodes as opportunity to engage with their non-Muslim colleagues and friends to explain Islam and Muslim practices.

Muslim religious leadership is not above criticism but they need to be engaged to develop a new kind of thinking that takes what Islam has to offer and apply it to the modern world. Religious scholars need to offer solutions to the problems associated with modern life without dragging the whole community to a medieval view of the religion and the world. For this to happen both university-educated and madrasa-educated Muslims need to interact and engage each other.

As Prof. Tabassum Khan rightly states, "It is important for middle-class Muslims to become more vocal and not let uninformed and biased opinions be representative of the community."
 

From Kashif-ul-Huda's gem of an article in Two Circles and The Hoot.

To read the full article click here and here and here. 

Kashif-ul-Huda is the editor of news website www.TwoCircles.net and can be reached at kashif@urdustan.com.