Media Freedom under Threat: Selective Solidarity and Hypocrisy will not do

By Prabodh Jamwal. Dated: 6/22/2017 1:29:53 PM

For decades, media organisations in the Northeast and Kashmir have been fighting for their right to exist and speak freely, without any support from the national media.
In the intervening period between the Emergency and the present phase, the regional, small and marginalised media bore the brunt of both harassment and co-option at the hands of the successive governments in New Delhi and in the states. Unfortunately, the 'national' media - which is now feeling the pinch because of the present government's far more brazen approach towards controlling the narrative - chose over the years to ignore this victimisation and these attempts to muzzle the 'lesser' sections of the media.

Veteran journalist and former Union minister Arun Shourie's call for unity among the mainstream media, both print and electronic, for defending the 'Freedom of Press' in the wake of the visibly vindictive Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raids on NDTV, once again brings into focus the malaise that afflicts the fourth estate in India. He was not off the mark in stating that the event at the Press Club of India on June 8, 2017, organised to highlight the overt harassment of NDTV and its promoters has brought many friends in media together after more than four decades. But it is important while making such clarion calls for unity to reflect on why it took four decades for the shaping of this bonhomie. And, whether it indeed is an inclusive unity?
In the intervening period, between the Emergency Days and present phase, the media bore the brunt of both harassment and co-option at the hands of the successive governments in New Delhi and in the states. The noose around the media has been tightening ever since the present BJP government came to power. The present government's far more brazen approach in controlling media has made even the most elitist and influential media feel the pinch unlike the past when the major brunt was borne mostly by regional, small and marginalized press. The elitist media that displayed a picture of harmony and unity last week, and maintains a dominating position inside autonomous media organizations like Editors Guild and other journalist associations, had chosen to ignore this victimisation and attempts to muzzle sections of media all these years...................

Read complete article in http://epaper.kashmirtimes.com/archive.aspx?page=7&date1=06/22/2017

(A slightly smaller version of this article originally appeared in Wire.in and can be accessed at 'https://thewire.in/149114/media-unity-something-missing/')

 

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