#SelfieWithModi overshadowing Chennai floods a clear sign of death of free press
The media is a crucial democratic institution. It is, to a large extent, privately-funded apart from substantial advertisements from corporates and governments. Earlier there were press commissions set up every ten years or so which would examine the state of the press including the interlocking of media and corporate interests, and also the wages of journalists and other employees, their rights and protections. There has been no press commission for decades.
The main responsibility, of course, has been of the largest secular party, the Congress, which is burdened by a selective loss of historical memory. The consequence: a larger measure of corporate and government influence on the media. This is, of course, uneven. Some national, regional and local newspapers and affiliated social media are dedicated to their principles, but the bulk are under pressure. This is clear from the reportage in the press and the electronic media.
Another democratic institution that has been allowed to stultify is the Press Council. It should have been further empowered, but that also was not done in the absence of a press commission. It is evident that the major political parties - national and regional - are not interested. So what does the press/electronic media report? The prime minister's selfies, his clothes, his passion for addresses to Indians abroad who have found immigration more profitable, his diluted and cursory criticism of intolerance, often by the RSS, of which the prime minister has been a pracharak, are discussed/televised at length with minimal interrogation.
But how much discussion is there of the causes and actual costs of the Chennai floods, or the earlier ones in Kashmir? How much coverage do we have of the ongoing tension between the majority Meiteis and tribal communities in Manipur, over the demand for inclusion of the tribals in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution? What about the exclusion of citizens who earlier were called to the government media houses like Doordarshan and AIR, and have been excluded since the current regime took over, to be wholly replaced by Sangh Parivar nominees? There is very little original analysis of international events and news especially from the global south.
A lot more focus should have been on what is happening in West Asia, the role of the Islamic State (ISIS), and action against the forty countries allegedly supporting the ISIS in some degree that were listed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the last G-20 meeting.
All these instances are about the erosion of democratic institutions like a free media. The media should not be forced and cajoled into dancing to the tune of governments and corporates; only to shift their steps when a new regime takes over.
The media educates and empowers but it cannot fully do so under political pressure. So the free press is not entirely free, though there are honourable exceptions. The negative influences of government and corporate pressures, often working in tandem, really are an infringement of Article 19 of the Constitution on the freedom of speech and expression. The media is part of the bulwark defending this fundamental right. It is high time it is given space to do what is was created and expected to.