PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: Indian politicians and patriots have long held the belief that the “western” media only relays bad news from Bharat.
That, despite all the towering progress made by the emerging superpower, foreign correspondents based out of India only tell their news consumers about death, disease, despair and disillusionment in our glorious land.
If not snakes, sadhus and superstition.
As if to underline the point, the Indian government has reportedly refused to extend the visa of Japanese television journalist, Shogo Takahashi of NHK television, allegedly because his reports focused extensively on poverty and the caste system.
In other words, “consistently negative reporting” about India, that is “not convenient for the interest of India“.
The Times of India reports that Takahashi, 46, first earned the displeasure of Indian officials because his despatches for the TV show Indo no Shogeki (The impact of India) dwelt overtly on the caste system in the Indian electoral system during the 2009 general elections.
Word has also now been conveniently leaked by anonymous officials that Takahashi often filmed his documentaries without taking permission or misused permissions to shoot something other than what permission had been taken for, and also shot “high-security” defence installations.
The word “bias” has also been mentioned.
NHK has expressed surprise at the Indian government’s abrupt decision and has sought an appointment with Indian embassay officials in Tokyo. There is talk that the channel may approach the Japanese foreign ministry to take up the matter with New Delhi.
However, the timing of the decision—shortly after a journalist of the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun complained at prime minister’s Manmohan Singh‘s national press conference about the difficulties in obtaining a press information bureau (PIB) accreditation—and the ostensible reasons are revealing.
On the one hand, for several months now, all the attention has been at estimating the number of poor in India (now conveniently fixed at 37% of the population). Is it so wrong if a foreign correspondent points it out? And since when did “consistently positive reporting” become a condition for visa renewal?
Does India even half-a-case to protest against anybody, Indian or foreign, dwelling on the menace of caste?
But it is the brazen manner in which a journalist has been sent out by a supposedly “liberalised” country for reporting what is not kosher that takes the breath away. That, and the silence of the Indian media lambs—the press council, the editors’ guilds, etc—at the treatment meted out to one of their own.
If Shago Takahashi had failed to convey something vital about freedom of expression in India, the faceless officials of the home and external ministries have done his job.
QED.
Also read: ‘Caste is what has made Indians fearful of change’
‘Hinduism is in a crisis; there’s a civil war inside’
How not to appoint a University vice-chancellor
‘We drink in our caste in our mother’s milk’
‘Yesterday’s caste is today’s struggle for equality’
churumuri 
A visa is a privilege not a right.
Indian press enjoys freedom of speech as a right and not a privilege.
If Indian press did not not enjoy the same (protected often enough by courts) this is how the Government would have treated them as well.
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Not sure if denying him his visa was the right thing to do, but it is certainly true that several foreign journalists and newspapers cover India in a way that is infuriating.
If you have an article on poverty in India, or Indian caste system, fine. You need to cover those negative aspects of India, certainly. However, notice that when they need to cover events like space launches or infrastructure development too, they manage to slip in a couple of sentences about ‘poverty and caste system’.
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In the days of paid news, planted news, PR puffs, there is this instrument of denial of visa. I thought we are a free country, value democracy and respect opinion. If standards that were applied to the Japanese victim in this case were to applied to the Indian media?
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Not a big deal. All democracies consistently issue/deny visas based on their perceived national interest. Let’s see if an Indian journalist based in Japan only focuses on pornography in Japan in all of his dispatches; then he will be politely asked to go home. Sure press freedoms are to be preserved but there are certain invisible ‘tram lines’ while reporting for a foreign correspondent. A one-off reportage on caste system is fine but making a ‘Sainath’ out of the issue will impact the democratic rule in India. Some foreign powers might act to deepen the societal fissures, might even try influencing election outcomes, might proffer gratuitous advices, and so on.
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It is easy to talk about foreign journalists talk about poverty and caste system. But what about the Indian journalists? The fact that the electronic visual media houses have been reporting the do called ‘honour killings’ are not mentioned by any foreign journalist. Ayt the same time, we also should note that it is the Discovery, CNN and BBC which report on most of India’s success stories. We heard of the Mumbai sea link from Discovery and the school for commandos from BBC. Both Were so enthusiastic in the telling of the story.
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Good for Shago Takahashi. I guess life is better in Japan.
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Why should a visa decision depend on what an individual says or writes? Aren’t we a free society any more?
Yes, a terrorist who has issued threats with malicious intent and has the
wherewithal to carry out the threats, and is imminent in carrying out those threats, is a different beast. A terrorist should, of course, be stopped or expelled.
But a journalist? It’s a bit absurd to deny a visa to a journalist just for criticizing our society. The government’s treatment of Shri. Takahashi is an affront to Article 19 of our constitution; the motivation for denying him the visa may be challenged in court — if Shri. Takahashi can somehow prove that that indeed was the motivation!
*DB*
I like your term “perceived national interest.” :)
In your perception, doesn’t the national interest lie in “uninhibited, robust and wide-open” debate of public issues? (phrase from a famous 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling). And for such debate to exist, shouldn’t our society’s leaders have a high tolerance for thoughtful criticism? Indeed, isn’t that the intent of Article 19?
By your logic, many Indian journalists, especially those who wear aggressive pseudo-secular stripes, might be highly inconsistent with the national interest! But wait a minute… aren’t many of those pseudo-seculars pretenders? — they are unaware of the history or premises of the progressive movement in america, or of the origins of liberalism in europe, or even of the tarka philosophies in india. So I guess in their pretense, your point is solid!! :P
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funny you ! they post bad things about india and these NRIs are all pinheads to enjoy it. We must get rid of these NRI’s ones and for all. No entry of NRI’s back to india. that’s it. :)
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It’s good that at least someone covers poverty in this country. We are a culture that believes in austerity and ensure that the majority has little access to precious resources like water, food, clothes etc. No wonder they cover the caste system because we have preserved ancient institutions like khap panchayats and stuck to time-honored traditions like honor killings. They should also write about the bandhs which contribute to bringing down stress levels among working folk who otherwise work too hard and die. They should also talk of how riots keep underwriters on their toes and the way our cities are designed for the next century. Then we have visionary politicians and adventurous miners who are ripping our forests to save us from wild animals and are taking concrete jungles to the hinterlands. They should also talk about how the highly democratic incentive scheme namely graft ensures that our government machinery works more efficiently than in any other country.
We have the Times of Indias and the DNAs of the world to cover great news like how our IT bodyshoppers are minting millions and talk of what the Bolly,Kolly,Sandal(wood) stars are up to when they are not shooting for those lovely flicks which are never noticed by a highly biased Oscar
jury.
The government is right in denying them visas, for PR is what we want them to do and news is something that someone wants to hide somewhere.
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I think this is “Shining India” syndrome.
You know rich man and wealthy man behavior and how a rich fellow demand respect and flaunt his money in that endeavor, ala reddys!!!
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What more to expect from the babus when we have middle class apologists for the caste system.
The Japanese are hell bent on causing fissures in India. And why? Because some journalist is using real data to show real problems like the caste system and poverty which are not being addressed effectively by us.
One-off reportage of real problems is fine, as long as the journalists covers some cricket or bollywood tamasha, and shows all is well with the majority of Indians.
Let keep shooting the messengers.
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Mysore Peshavan,
You pose questions and then you answer them in your own unhique way:) A careful intelligent reading of my comment will answer all the raging questions you have about press freedoms in India. Briefly, we have Sainaths plenty in this country. But we will not allow multiple non-Indian Sainaths:) Thank you.
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I feel that foreign media certainly highlights only the negative. Nothing wrong in reporting what is reality but to focus on only caste system, poverty and corruption without highlighting so many positives about India seems biased. Having said all that, I don’t know if the Japanese journalist did any thing so bad that his visa needed to be revoked…can’t comment without knowing what he really did. One thing for sure I have noticed in the US is that when it comes to China, only the good is showcased while India gets bashed. I guess the total lack of press freedom in China means you can only tape/interview/write about the positives that the govt allows you to see where as in India, foreign press can roam around much more freely and publish stuff that Indian govt is not censoring. It does bother me that despite China’s problems when it comes to human rights, the fact that they are portrayed better in US media always has had an impact on general public here for sure! They somehow don’t see China to have poverty or corruption etc and mingle with them easier for various reasons. I do think these subtle things have a long term impact on citizens’ psyche.
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I am surprised at the tone of this article, just because a person’s visa got denied and who happens to be a journo… author is talking all the same old craps – freedom of press, freedom of speech blah blah blah
Its solely a country’s discretion to grant or to deny visa to anyone and obviously if granting a visa is not benefiting that country they have every right to deny it. As simple as that!
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Agree with ‘rk’. Most American douchebags get carte blanche freedom to roam around here and India bashing has almost become a National passtime for many there.
I hope a few Western journalists offend some Chinese Communist officials by going into no-go zones etc. in China and get a severe beating in one of their jails.
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Vinay – What has what happens in China got to do with what happened in India? Should we get all bad qualities from all over the world? Ofcourse we have got it already. China has got a thousand things right that India has got wrong and all that you find is justification of our deficiency through China?
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Abhi:
Yes, there are a thousand things wrong with India. Yes, there is a lot we must improve upon. But the point being made here is this:
Media coverage of India in the West has been overwhelmingly biased over the years. Most ‘Westerners’ still cannot come terms to the fact that in that “poor, third world country India”, there are actually some wonderful signs of progress. The other day, a certain American was shocked on seeing images of the Gurgaon skyline. His statement was something to the effect of: “I am shocked. I thought Indian cities were just huge slums with some old buildings in the middle. I always used to be amazed at how such a place can do any software/IT work at all!”
Why did that American build such an image of India? Even in the days before liberalization, it was never the case that Indian cities were ‘slums with some old buildings in the middle’. The reason that particular American developed such an image about India is, the ONLY media coverage India gets in the West is generally about ‘slums, poverty, caste system, yada yada yada’.
Watch any ‘Western’ news agency’s coverage of anything related to India or Indians and you will find that even when the particular topic being covered is a ‘good thing’, a mention of Indian ‘poverty/caste system/slums/infrastructure/other problems’ is almost mandatory! Delhi’s terminal 3 opens, and a Western agency covers it. They round up the coverage with a comment like: “There is also strong criticism from certain quarters, of the fact that a country which has hundreds of millions in poverty spends so much on a luxury like this”
First of all, the journalist douchebags don’t realize that money spent in the domestic economy generates jobs, boosts the economy and it is critical to have that virtuous cycle of job creation in a country like ours. The very same journalist bastard who writes articles about ‘India’s smelly and crowded airports’ goes on a few months later, to write an article about how wasteful a good airport is for India!
Most of what you see in the Western media is thinly veiled racism – don’t fool yourself otherwise. When Tata took over Jaguar and Land Rover, you ought to have seen the comments on web sites by the Brit public, to the effect of, “those incompetent Indians are going to destroy the beautiful British heritage of Land Rover”.
No one even thinks of questioning countries like China for simply barring access to almost 75% of their country! Protests and diplomatic requesitions are possible only with ‘third world India’. Go into the rural hinterland of China if you can and you’ll see that there is not much to differentiate rural India and rural China.
Implement a system in India wherein BIMARUs and others cannot pour endlessly into Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, etc., a la China, and watch Indian cities grow beautiful within a decade!
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And Abhi: Self-analysis, self-criticism, and self-improvement is a good thing – we need to do that in order to improve. But there is a fine line between self-criticism and self-flagellation. I see often, that Indians these days indulge in more of self-flagellation and less of constructive self-criticism. You also need to recognize bias and latent racism from the West when you see it.
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Where is the self criticism that you talk about? There has been a clear violation of suppressing criticism by denying visa in this example, and in the probably one of the most liberal blog site in India like Churumuri, most comments you see is justifying it. And if you see the mainstream opinion as in TOI and ibnlive comments section parochial feelings fly so high that embarrasses even the conservatives. Forget self flagellation, I do not see anything close to self introspection.
And I don’t think there is a western media conspiracy to malign India as you suggest. It is probably our media and our middle class which is biased and hides our ugly underbelly like caste system, slums, beggars etc. It is only amongst Indians that a report on slums and beggars create more pain than the existence of slums itself.
I have lived most of my time in rural India and rest in Bangalore and I see that the perception amongst west/western media is more real than our own make belief perception. We have become insensitive to the hard facts about our own society that we cant come to admit it. I wish I could take each point like “the american media conspiracy against India” or “some comments in British media against Jaguar” etc, but that would run into pages and no point doing that. Every society has imperfections, but try quantifying it and you will find our culture is way inferior and we need people to speak it.
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Abhi:
I never said that there is any ‘Western conspiracy’ – I am not a conspiracy theorist. Conspiracies such as ‘Our country is being ripped apart by the Zionists and Amreekans and Indians’ are a Paki speciality and best left to them.
I maintain, however, that there is a significant bias among Western journalists. It is not an organized conspiracy – there is a big difference between the two words. If you are a techie, I presume you must have visited slashdot.org sometime – if not please do. When articles on India are published there, just look at the latent racism and hate that flows freely, even among highly educated Americans (and other Westerners). Some gems: “Why is India able to do things to cheap? Because they have caste system! The brahmins keep hundreds of millions subjugated and make them clean their shit! They have unlimited slave labour supply, that’s why they get things done cheap.”
I am not saying that India has no problems at all and that we are perfect. I also agree that outsiders do point out some valid issues. But you have to be blind not to see the constant strain of anti-India bias throughout the Western media.
I would like to conduct a small experiment: an Indian journalist should go to Japan and report for 6 months, one article per week, on various topics like huge amount of Child pornography in Japan, create videos of guards stuffing/cramming people with their hands into overcrowded metro trains (check youtube), large lists of brutal war crimes committed by Japanese against Chinese including medical experiments, and so on. I would want to see what the Japanese reaction will be.
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Abhi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indophobia
Do read the parts further down that page about the BBC and NYT, mainly BBC.
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Any criticism is good. If you want to run away from reality just close your eyes, and hope everything goes away. Keep blaming others. And wait for Naxalites and others to wake you up from your sleep.
Vinay,
What is your problem if a journalist researches and writes about some truths which most Indian journos dont have the guts/money/resources to cover? What is Anti-India in that? In order to improve, we need every kick in the backside to wake us up.
Only political parties, fanatics and bureaucrats will fear exposure and honesty.
Once we improve to the level of Japan, you can afford to send journalists to write about ills of Japan. Then we will put your experiment to work.
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