Like night follows day, the media coverage of the terror attack on Bombay has resulted in the 21st century ritual of biting the hand that feeds the news. After lapping up the non-stop TV coverage for 72 hours, the tiresome game of shooting-the-messenger is being played with great glee by news consumers.
Weighty questions are now being asked about the media compromising the safety of commandos by getting too close to the action; giving out too many operations details; intruding into the grief of victims and relatives by heartlessly thrusting cameras into their faces; anchors hogging the limelight; etc.
The chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, facing flak for not reacting to intelligence warnings that warned of a “sea-borne” Bombay attack, has gone for the jugular. At a media conference, he threatened to “chop the heads off” two TV reporters who aired an embargoed Navy Day interview ahead of schedule.
The Indian media was not an “enabling instrument in the interests of the State”, the Navy chief said, and apropos of nothing, dredged up an old allegation of three people perishing in the high hills of Kargil because “a smart reporter” (of NDTV) got a “smart colonel” to fire the Bofors gun to show its fire power. (NDTV has termed the charge defamatory, and sought an apology.)
The Hindi channel, India TV, owned by Atal Behari Vajpayee‘s erstwhile media advisor Rajat Sharma, has come in for sharp criticism for airing an alleged interview with one of the Bombay bombers. And there are renewed calls for a code of conduct, etc, as there was after the Aarushi murder coverage.
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Sharma claims tried an interesting experiment last Saturday. He invited a former army chief to address the staff of India TV “to understand, from a decorated war hero, whether news channels went overboard in their coverage”, if lives had been endangered, and what precautions, if any, producers, reporters and camerapersons should have taken while showing “live” action.
Writes Sharma in today’s Indian Express:
“To my surprise, the former army chief was emphatic: “News channels did nothing wrong. Your coverage didn’t do any harm whatsoever to the commandos! I’ve handled action as a major, then as a full colonel, and finally as an army commander in anti-terrorist operations, and there’s nothing I could make out from the news channel about the strategy of our commandos.
“Frankly, I expected him to echo what some have been saying—how terrorists got valuable clues on the commando plan by watching our channels. But sample what he said: “Do you think that terrorists holed up in a hotel facing commando fire had time to watch TV?”
“A young reporter persisted. He reminded the general of the “widespread belief” that the terrorists were being briefed on their Blackberrys by their bosses, watching our news channels. Promptly came the angry reply. “Anyone suggesting this must be mad. (Even) I could not get an idea about the action plan. Who has the time to look at TV and Blackberrys when you are in the midst of gunfire?”
Read the full article here: Reality, not television
Read Barkha Dutt’s defence here: ‘The media is not the message. The viewer is king’
Also read: ‘NDTV: Navy chief’s comment is defamatory’
The Navy guy wants to cover up his rear by abusing the media. What were the Navy folks doing when the terrorists sailed all the way from Karachi to Mumbai. How could they so easily do this. They should be held accountable.
The mumbai police and Maharashtra police also need to be held accountable for not anticipating an attack of this magnitude. All the time before this incident Mumbai police and the maharastra ruling party were chanting the mantra of Hindu Terrorism.
To call the viewer a king is a sick joke perpetrated by the people who want to turn everyting into reality TV. Burkha dutt, who clearly has blood on her hands, is using this as a ruse to bluff citizens. Now that the chief of navy has raised the issue, an enquiry into the facts of the issue must be held and the culprit(s) punished. I think Ms Dutt managed to escape because of her close associtation withe the current ‘secular’ polity
….(Even) I could not get an idea about the action plan…this is a classic statement , wonder whom Mr Sharma called
I do not agree- Militants had all the time while they were holed up in hotels with nowhere to escape. External information certainly helped them with atleast some info which helped them consolidate their position and pose greater resistance to the forces. Commandos hardly had any advantage of element of surprise.
whether they got it on tv or blackberry or through divine intervention is irrelevant.
it is unacceptable to divulge any live information, even if there is a small chance that such information could benefit the terrorists at the cost of innocent hostages and the police and military.
when there are communal riots, why does the media not mention communities involved? to minimize loss of innocent lives right?
how difficult is it to understand this and be sensitive and discriminating about what you say on TV in a live ongoing scene of defense?
instead of accepting their failures, these wise asses are now second guessing the tactics and strategies of those who died protecting and taking back the city.
media just wants to save its ass.
the captured terrorist has already confessed that he and his jihadi buddies used blackberries to monitor international reactions and commando operations.
Per se, airing such events may not be objectionable, provided the media men do not stand rubbing shoulders with soldiers who are aiming to shoot! At least, this was what I saw on TV and in print media: cameras and guns were next to each other. This certainly must be avoided.
As regards TV acting as feed back, the General must be really naive. When the terrorists have the capability to watch TV on blackberry, it is safe to assume that they are actually doing so, and know about the formation of forces outside, rather than assume their ignorance about the happenings outside, and risk a bullet in the forehead.
Besides, in the field, men who are risking bullet every other minute, might be forced to do many things, which a common citizen might not conceive of or digest easily. It is better to leave the armed forces to their own devices, especially when they are in the firing line, rather than inhibit them by preparing evidence for the next “human rights army” assault.
Read Vir Sanghvi’s article in HT and see how this media pin heads castigate the service chiefs. The media has to be accountable.
The news channels should not have done the live coverage, not because it was helping the terrorists, but because it exposed our lack of capability in fighting terrorists. No army needs 60 hours to put down 10 juveniles even though armed.
Take the case of Helicopter dropping commandos atop Nariman House ! certainly such vital information would have been conveyed to Terrorists ! If what Rajat is blabbering is true then it reflects poorly on the state of army Chief’s intelligence !
The issue here is : What value does “Live telecast” of a commando operation of a hostage & war situation give to the viewers ?
Barkha Dutt & some others from the channels often appear to be so immersed in the surrealism of reality television that the delineating space between “valuable news” & “distasteful voyeurism” often gets blurred for the viewers.
Collecting footage during the operation is a journalist’s right but his discretion lies in either using them as “live feeds” or telecasting them as recorded feeds after the end of the operation.
I don’t think viewers would mind suspending their right to information during the operation (if such rights exist at all) to ensure the safety of the lives of hostages.
IMHO live coverage by media is a small part in the fight against terrorism, that has done greatest damage to India for over last 30 plus years.
Islamism swept/sweeping large parts of Middle East, practically every land from Maghreb to Indonesia, including India and its neighborhood. I found no detailed analysis of that in any Indian media.
To get a real picture of (say) what is happening inside bangladesh, or Pakistan, or our eastern border, we have to depend on (say) NYTimes who take the pain, spend money to send their reporters on the ground and report in detail. I remember seeing a 4-5 page detailed story on Islamists of Bangladesh on the pages of NYtimes magazine 2-3 years back. No Indian media ever done any deep on the ground analysis on this menace that is affecting us most.
A false sense of political correctness, apologist approach have stopped Indian media from performing its duty. The very same people say, terrorism is not related with religion. But why then they overlooked growth of Jehadi terrorism for decades?
Kashmir did not become bloddy suddenly in 1990-91. It took decades of hardwork by Wahabis, Jehadis, and their sponsors to bring that change. No Indian media EVER reported that. Its said, we Indians have no sense of history. Its very rightly said.
Now, our country, average people, very existance is at stake here.
Well, like everybody else the media does not take well to criticism and this article seems to be its way of ducking the issue – blame it on the outspoken Admiral or the next person to cross its path. It would definitely not hurt the media to be a little more careful/ responsible and considerate about others (in this case the commandos / the bereaved).
I have seen the live coverage of the events unfolding on 9/11 being broadcast in the US. Even after days of news coverage, there wasn’t a single image of injured people lying haphazardly on hospital beds or people in unpresentable state period! I was impressed to see how the privacy of the individuals was respected and basic human decency was maintained. On the other hand the Indian TV channels seem to be trying to outdo each other for “goriest image” or the “most sensational news piece” prize regardless of their implications. I can hardly watch news on Indian channels without wincing at least a couple of times at the raw images being beamed.
For all the technological advancement in information broadcasting (live coverage, blogs etc. ), the Indian media still needs to grow up. Our media does not seem to understand that with great power comes great responsibility.
Terrorists do not watch, but their bosses abroad watch every move and instruct them over Satellite phones.This is elementary.This is what happened to some extent. The more rescue operations are kept secret better are the chances of success and help reduce casualities to minimum.
This general is a retired one.. must be out of touch with tech developments like blackberry, MMS, Internet etc.
Imagine the masters of the terrorists in pakistan sending the MMS of commands landing on a building to the terrorists’ mobiles..
Old guy may not be aware that the civilian world has access to more advanced technologies compared to the ASCON-1 he must have used when he was in forces..
ERR>>Terrorists do not watch, but their bosses abroad watch every move and instruct them over Satellite phones.This is elementary.
All elementaries fail when we are led by UPA. Nobody in the world thought that it will take 9 hours for NSG to reach Mumbai, definitely not the ISI-Paki Army.
TM SAYS
‘The very same people say, terrorism is not related with religion. But why then they overlooked growth of Jehadi terrorism for decades?’
Even after attack on jews and kasab’s confessions and 1300 year history,the elm is lecturing that terror has no religion.
But poor Sadhvi committed the ultimate crime of selling a mobike 4 years ago and hindus were defamed and the EL media took 5 minutes
to coin the word saffron terror.God save INdia from the secularists within