GIRISH NIKAM writes from New Delhi: Now that the elections are over and done with in Gujarat, one needs to look at the role of the media in that State, its pliant nature and the increasing commercial angle in its reportage.
Whether newspapers or TV channels, the Gujarati language media by and large tried to avoid discussing “controversial issues” like the 2002 pogrom, the status of the riot-affected victims, or any of the raging controversies.
“Angrezi media ki tarah, hum (Narendra) Modi ko ungli nahin karte (unlike the English media, we do not finger Modi),” was a revealing comment a Gujarati TV channel reporter in Ahmedabad made.
So much so, what was being heatedly discussed in national newspapers and TV channels based outside Gujarat, and also by some of the English language newspapers in the State, was completely avoided by the local language media. All through the campaign, Modi, who was visibly hostile to journalists from the national media or downright cynical, was seen in an unusually good mood on a Gujarati TV channel, while on a “live” programme.
There were no questions asked about the various allegations being made against him by the Congress leaders; no questions about the Tehelka expose which had brought out how the 2002 carnage was perpetrated, in the words of the perpetrators themselves; no questions about the status of the court cases; no questions about the Sohrabuddin issue.
“We are clearly told earlier, before Modi accepts to give an interview, that none of these questions are to be asked and we in the Gujarati media stick to it,” the TV channel reporter confessed.
In fact, the channel went out of its way to ensure during the claimed “live” programme that Modi did not have to face any “inconvenient” questions from the viewers. “It was not a ‘live’ programme. If it was ‘live’ and viewers were free to ask him questions, then why were no telephone numbers being flashed on the screen for the viewers to call,” a journalist of a leading English newspaper in Rajkot, pointed out.
If the tendency to toe a suggested line is worrisome, what is equally worrisome about the Gujarati media is the increased commercialisation of the news space.
“Whether it is the news columns or the editorial page, everything is available for a price in the Gujarati media,” a senior Congress functionary who was actively involved in the Congress campaign, revealed. “We had a separate budget earmarked for the media. If we did not pay, our news stories would not appear at all in these newspapers.”
In other words, the political parties not only had to pay for the advertisements which appeared under the party’s banner in these newspapers but also had to pay for the news items of any event or meeting held by it. “If we refused to pay to cover a rally or a meeting, and sometimes even a press conference, there would be no news about it next day, except for big rallies involving names like Sonia Gandhi or the Prime Minister,” the AICC functionary added.
This was corroborated by any number of reporters and agents cum reporters of various Gujarati newspapers across the State. “Paid news”, as it has become known in the media vocabulary in the State, has become a standard fixture, and the rates are fixed.
Pointing to a double-column story in a Gujarati newspaper, a stringer-cum-agent of a Hindi newspaper in Navsari district says, “See, for this story, the BJP candidate had to pay Rs 12,800.”
Who pockets the money? The stringer says 85 per cent of it goes to the newspaper’s management; the agent-cum-stringer of the town who gets it is paid a commission of 15 per cent. “Everyone in the edition shares it,” he adds with a tinge of regret as his newspaper is not “in demand” and he is losing out on the commission.
The “news report” is obviously heavily tilted in favour of the candidate who has paid for it, with all the positive reasons being written about how he is going to win. This kind of commercialisation has resulted in readers being left utterly confused, as they are unable to decipher what has been paid for in their newspapers and what come to them without any strings attached.
One of the leading newspapers, as if to keep its conscience clean, uses a technique to justify its decision to sell editorial space. “There is a dot (dingbat) at the end of the story, which signifies that it is paid news,” says a stringer-cum-agent of a Gujarati newspaper in Surat district, pointing to a story. But this is confined to only one of the leading newspapers. Others don’t have any such qualms.
Result: readers are left high and dry when it comes to getting honest news, views or trends about the elections.
A hotel owner in Himmat Nagar in Sabarkantha district expresses this confusion of the readers by pulling out the previous day’s leading Gujarati newspaper. On one page, side by side, are two stories, both double-column stories of the same size, about the two rival candidates in a particular constituency.
“Look at this, this story says this candidate is surely winning the elections, while the adjoining story about the rival candidate also says exactly the same thing, that he is going to win!” points out the hotel owner. “These newspapers are making fools of all of us. Sab bikhau hai (everything is on sale).”
The candidates have now come to believe that the only way they can get publicity is by paying the journalists. Even a journalist whose intentions are nothing but journalistic also is seen through the same eyes by the political parties and especially the candidates.
“When I went to talk to a candidate to get details about him and his campaign, I was asked, ‘Yeh sab chodiye, yeh bataiye kitna dena hai (that’s all right, just tell me how should I give)”, and he pulled out bundles of one -hundred and five-hundred rupee notes from his pocket,” revealed a young reporter of a Hindi daily newspaper in Surat.
After a fact-finding enquiry undertaken by the Editors’ Guild of India following the 2002 carnage in Gujarat, Dileep Padgaonkar had remarked about the role of Gujarati media: “I feel their prime interest is commercial.” It is only getting worse going by the recent experiences in the Gujarat election. The only people who stand to lose in this politician-media nexus are the ordinary readers, and of course, the cause of good journalism.
A translated version of this piece appears in the latest issue of Outlook Saptahik
Also read: ‘Media is now part of a conspiracy of silence‘
SUCHETA DALAL: How The Times of India sells its editorial space
SUNIL K. POOLANI: Selling editorial space; changing times
Cross-posted on sans serif
the accusation that Gujarati media didnt rake up 2002 issues is not fair. What do these so called secular media want to do? Keep hanging on to 2002? till when? 5 years are over. 5 more years? 10 more years? or 25 more years? I am sure, till the death of Modi or till BJP completely vanishes, these morons of media will be recalling 2002 again and again, but very much partially – only what happened after Godhra, and not the exact Godhra.
But the same media argues to forget anti-Sikh riots, Bofors and move forward. Is this the ethical journalism that secular media persons talk about?
shame shame!
Isn’t it obvious!
Gujarati media finds profit in Pro-Modi and National Media gets more eyeball share in antagonising Modi.
What about the ‘ journalists ‘ who used to lick the feet, boot and ass of S M Krishna for a BDA site in Bangalore? What about the journalists who have been illegally staying at CPWD flats in New Delhi?
What about the journalists who used to beg for air tickets from Ananthkumar or the late G Puttaswamy Gowdru? Also a bottle of Whiskey from R L Jalappa or Jigajinagi.
I have seen an ex – journalist (now a journalism ” teacher “) who molested his own students.
These people are thousand times more dangerous than Modi.
hot blood thanks for that link to IPL…
kannada enthusiasts check out vaidehi’s spirited book reading on this page
http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/vaidehi.html
man o man!!! i am so glad this will be preserved for posterity.
awesome!!!
After Modi, now its turn for Gujarati Media. Whoever don’t agree with psuedo honchos of Delhi elite press must be villified.
Does Yogendra Yadav have any face left to show the world after he professed himself to have altered the poll analysis?
What he inserted in school text book (cutting foetus)- Is it proven in any court of law?
Precisely these sort of reporting make Modi a bigger hero. Psuedos are suffering from a uncuranble mental disease .
Media in Gujarat is cheap .Ok Noted .So what is the point you are making.
National media ( english ) is costly ??? How many of the Gujarat Media organisations are Public Listed Companies compared to the main stream English Media.Most of the Journalists / Editors / head Honchos are after the Stock market quotations and make a quick buck which is used later to print/ telecast blantantly false news stories.Most of these guys are related to the Persons in Power and it would be naive to believe that all that they PUBLISH is the truth.Honestly the National Media SUCKS
Heading : 3/5
Content : 2/5 for one sided and a very subjective narration.
What about the English media that sold out long ago? Consider the facts.
1) According to the English media, 2000 Muslims and 0 Hindus were killed in the post-Godhra riots. This is of course a blatant lie. This lie is required for the English media to claim that it was a planned pogrom and not a riot.
2) According to the English media and websites like Tehelka, the Hindus in the train dragged a Muslim girl and raped her. This was the reason for the firebombing of the train! Amazing claim this. This story even had the name of a journalist appended to it. Who else would know the phone number of a journalist but another journalist. I don’t know if it is true, but I have heard that this story was fabricated by the founder of Tehelka. It definitely sounds credible because no one else would know details about another journalist.
3) The English media then claimed that the fire was an accident! This is the most amazing claim to date. As someone rightly asked elsewhere, why did the Muslims throw stones on the passengers who were burning as a result of the accidental fire?
4) Outlook claimed in an article by my fellow Syrian Christian (disclosure: I no longer submit to the White man’s religion) Suzanne Arundhati Roy that the Hindus had ripped open the stomach of a woman and killed the fetus. This was a fraudulent claim made by Outlook. Suzanne Roy and the Outlook editor did not even have the decency to admit that their claim was a fraudulent claim.
5) The English media suppressed the fact that the mastermind behind the fire in the train was a high ranking Congress official called Mohammad Kolota who is possibly very close to Sonia Gandhi.
6) Remember that the English media can be bought out with prostitutes. You should read the article ‘Editor the Great’ by one Krishna Prasad on Rediff about MJ Akbar (he doesn’t name Akbar but there are enough hints including in the headline) explaining how he tried to have sex with a young journalist.
7) The Newton quote claim was fabricated.
8) At the time that Modi allegedly made the comment and the controversy blew up, I thought that Sohrabuddin was some innocent guy. I just learnt that he had a cache of sophisticated arms including grenades in his house. Give me a break! The English media should stop claiming that he was some innocent person. I am not surprised why he was killed off in an encounter. Otherwise, the cops who arrested him would have been killed by his friends. I can live with encounter deaths of terrorists like Veerappan and Sohrabuddin. Otherwise, India will become like Nepal where the Naxalites take over.
Finally, if the English media was honest, they would have:
a) Admitted that the Muslims were behind the firebombing of the train.
b) Admitted that the riots that followed was not a pogrom but regular riots in which hundreds were killed on both sides instead of fabricating the claim that 2000 Muslims and 0 Hindus were killed. The number 2000 is an inflated number.
c) Not fabricated the claim about a girl being raped with the false claim of a journalist filing that report.
d) Not allowed Suzanne Arundhati Roy’s fabrications to be published. Instead, they should have caught her out for plagiarizing the claim about tearing open of the stomach from one of the reports on the atrocities of the US soldiers in Vietnam. Come to think of it, this claim is so cliched and appears in every third “human rights” report that once I see it, I know it is a fabrication.
e) Not supported terrorists like Sohrabuddin and Mohammad Afzal.
When I identify myself as a Syrian Christian, I use the term Syrian Christian as a community and not as a religious group. This is a group that is strongly pro-India except for some idiots like Suzanne Arundhati Roy. The only consolation for us is that her idiocy came from her father’s side. I would have loved to believe this except for the fact that her mother is a fraud too. She took a fat dowry and then sued her brothers for inheritance. I can tell you as an insider that the practice of giving a dowry at the time of the girl’s marriage is to compensate for the lack of inheritance.
Vincent,
Thank you for your comments. You have spoken for all of us.
Churumuri,
please stop being such a pussy. Suck up your hate and move on to find some new faults in Modi, rather than beating the ‘paid tehalka probe’ that failed miserably.
Please grow up.
Vincent,
You have written the truth, nothing but the truth. Let me add few stuff:
1. GOI’s statement in the Indian Parliament says: around 1000 died. Out of that, 300 were Hindus.
Lets remember, not a single Hindu died during Sikh massacre of 1984.
English Press still continues with 2000 death figure, and never mention that 30% death were Hindu.
2. Senior Journalist PS Jha (Ex Editor of the Hindustan Times) wrote a piece in the Outlook after few months of Godhra where he exposed the supposed mail from a local journalist that claimed “one Muslim Girl was abducted by VHP folks”. That journalist flatly denied he ever sent such email. Question is: why sent that mail?
Biggest question is:
Why Psuedo cabal bends their back so much to protect the Muslim Lumpens? Are all Muslims in India like those in Godhra? obviously not. Why then they go over board to ‘justify’ those lumpen, jehadi muslims?
We are told, it was a reaction to “abduction”. Even if the “abduction” were true, would it mean, next time Hindus will behave the same way by burning down Muslims because of some local issues?
The author himself has a highly questionable reputation. Please have a look at the BDA site allotment list!
Girish one fine day when muslim jehadis will cut you off into pieces or blast you into smitherens, they will not ask how much love you have for muslims. They will just look at your identity and lethally clobber you. Try joining any muslim group and see if they even let you there. Have you guys totally lost all self respect and courage to these barbaric uncouth mad mulllas? Cowering under the fear of brutal jehadis, will you go to any extent to sing their praised like defeated slaves? Why? Does all your education only teach you to bow to such animals? Don’t you even now realize there is no escape from this war against mad mullas? If you are so afraid, change your religion . Why are you bringing shame to the hindus by keeping a hindu name? The whole world is only reacting to jehadi psycopaths, cant you see that? You are really pathetic. Do something abot yourself.
For your information Ashok Chavan had paid 400 crore for PRINT ADS according to a recent article by The Hindu newspaper.
and regarding Gujarati Newschannel telecasting Gujarat in positivity is a good step. What is bad in it? They atleast have there own identity unlike other media.