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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Justice Katju scores a self-goal by Subir Roy

Justice Katju scores a self-goal by Subir Roy

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published Published on Nov 9, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 9, 2011

Justice Markandey Katju has done his own mission, supervising the responsible functioning of the media, a disservice. By criticising the media through sweeping generalisations and with extreme naïvete, he has got its back up, provoking a sharp reaction from the Editors Guild instead of a willingness to talk and sort things out. A lifetime spent in issuing obiter dicta has ill-equipped Justice Katju in the communication skills needed to carry a sensitive and diverse public constituency with him.

This is a pity because there is a lot that is wrong with the media. And the way to begin to set it right is to initiate a debate and guide it towards a workable consensus without letting it get either shrill or derailed. To raise issues but not in a manner that makes for level-headed give-and-take is to waste an opportunity and lose the attention of the public, which is quite hard to get and retain. The upshot may well be that if someone raises these issues again soon, then it can produce the reaction: haven’t we been here a little earlier and found the argument pointless?

Few would have faulted Justice Katju if he had used words somewhat like the following. Too many journalists enter the field intellectually ill-equipped and make matters worse by doing too little homework before rushing to publish or broadcast. Unfortunately, round-the-clock news broadcasting has created a situation in which we have to report what is happening even as it is happening without having the time to understand, not to speak of research the background, so as to make a coherent and balanced presentation. As for debate on the box, it often degenerates into a gladiatorial contest that may be good as spectator sport and for viewership ratings but does not aid either understanding or consensus building.

This much has been said by many and so the real issue is: where do we go from here? A quick look at how the media has evolved since Independence can greatly aid understanding. The media began with amateurs. Many young men who were literate and informed but had lost out on degrees and careers, because their time was taken up with demonstrating and going to jail to win freedom, gravitated towards newspapers after Independence. During the fifties and sixties the media was happy to be part of nation-building, reporting what leaders said and development news about projects, plan allocations and targets set and missed.

As soon as national politics became a bit lively and contentious, Mrs Gandhi imposed a 10-page ceiling on newspapers, ostensibly to save foreign exchange spent on importing newsprint but essentially to stifle press freedom. And the Emergency came thereafter. The Indian Press (TV then meant only Doordarshan) experienced its first efflorescence from 1977 onwards. The excitement and chaos of the Janata rule and its demise were just right for a hundred flowers to bloom. That is when the magazine boom came.

From the early eighties onwards, with creeping economic liberalisation, the public space in India changed dramatically and the Indian consumer was discovered. It also marked the birth and the take-off of the business media — business magazines and business sections in general newspapers arrived. As the decade progressed, established economic dailies got makeovers. The focus shifted from nation-building to people, personalities and brands. The birth of business journalism enabled journalists for the first time to earn semi-decent salaries, so youngsters began looking at journalism as one more career option.

The economic changes gathered huge momentum from the early nineties with the initiation of the new economic policies. These and the birth of institutions like the Stock Exchange Board of India, the National Stock Exchange, depositories and demat accounts changed the way business was done in the country. It also changed the face of business reporting. The late nineties saw the advent of sting operations by the media and dedicated TV news channels.

The most remarkable change in Indian journalism in the two decades since the reforms has been in business reporting. It is now fact-based, well-researched and balanced, helped enormously by tightening disclosure standards and increasingly rigorous stock analysis in the wake of growing retail and foreign portfolio investment. The period has also been marked by near stagnation in what used to be the most prestigious field for journalists: political reporting. But a big change is again on the way. Not just political reporting but even the entire public space is in for a transformation, whose momentum and impact will only pick up over time. This is the fallout of the Right to Information Act.

It should be clear from the foregoing that it is society (and technology) that has repeatedly changed the media, not the other way round. Now, Indian public life is undergoing another major revolution through the movement launched by Kisan Hazare and his team. As public entities across the board get ready to live with far greater accountability, the media will not be left out. It is not difficult to visualise civil society raising a clamour for a quasi-judicial process to address swiftly and efficiently the worst excesses in matters like communally-biased reporting, or plain old influence peddling. The fallout of the Niira Radia tapes and the Press Council’s own report on paid news, which has claimed its fist scalp with the disqualification of a UP MLA, are harbingers of the future.

The regulatory regime for the media can change in one of two ways. The government can heed Justice Katju’s plea and give the Press Council teeth. Or media-watching organisations within civil society can clamour for institutional change like the demand for a proper Lok Pal Bill. Whichever way it happens, demand for greater media accountability is sure to appear on the radar. Only ham- handedness like Justice Katju’s can delay the process.


The Business Standard, 9 November, 2011, http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/subir-roy-justice-katju-scoresself-goal/454901/


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