Coverage of Jayalalithaa's health lays bare ethical conflicts of breaking news
At about 5:30pm today, that is Monday, December 5, 2016, a flurry of social media posts "broke the news" that J Jayalalithaa, current chief minister of Tamil Nadu and the supreme leader of AIADMK, "had died of cardiac arrest". These posts were mainly tweets from newspapers and channels, which cited "local channels", such as Jaya TV, Sun News, etc, to substantiate their claims.
Newspapers such as the Indian Express, and the Hindustan Times, were the first ones to make it public. Others followed, but quickly retracted once it became evident that it may not be the case.
Indian express already had an article ready ???? pic.twitter.com/M35MoIBUe6
— right wing page3 (@indiantweeter) December 5, 2016
DailyO too tweeted the same (and has since then deleted it), and had to eat its words for "rushing it". Especially after senior journalists who are based in Chennai, or are covering the Jaya cardiac arrest story, cautioned against hurrying it. India Today TV's Shiv Aroor, and former colleague TS Sudhir, kept sounding reasonable caveats that the hospital staff had expressed dismay, and that they were trying their best to keep their beloved Amma alive, against all odds.
News of #Jayalalithaa passing away is not true, says @SangitaApollo of #ApolloHospitals. Says CM continues to be on life support
— T S Sudhir (@Iamtssudhir) December 5, 2016
'Nothing can kill Amma.' #Jayalalithaa pic.twitter.com/I72bhgIjUX
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) December 5, 2016
Crowds swell outside Apollo Hospital. Here's what it's like right now. #Jayalalithaa pic.twitter.com/ycq5lZzq72
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) December 5, 2016
Was it irresponsible of the newspapers and channels, as well as some of the opinion portals, including us, to "break the story" before others, or before it even happened? Yes, but there are more layers to this story of secrecy, media ethics, political inheritance and possible violence on the streets than what meets the eye at first glance.
Only about a month back, most of us were fighting tooth and nail against the unfair targeting of NDTV India by the government for its reporting on the Pathankot attack. Interestingly, the claims of the government, that NDTV India ended up divulging crucial details of Pathankot operation, by alerting the terrorists about the whereabouts of "two" of their counterparts, lie in tatters because the latest findings by experts say that there were only four terrorists involved in Pathankot attack, and not six, as the central government, including Union home minister Rajnath Singh, had said previously.
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| Amma is the emotional fulcrum of an immensely large community in Tamil Nadu. [Photo: Agencies] |
This means that live coverage of an event as serious as a terror attack can become a peg on which the State can hang some vendetta politics of its own, indulge in some popular sport like grouse venting by asking a randomly picked channel to go off the air for 24 hours.
However, is the live coverage of Jayalalithaa's failing health post the cardiac arrest on December 4, Sunday comparable to the Pathankot attack reporting? Yes, and no. Because Amma is the emotional fulcrum of an immensely large community who love their Thalaivi with all their hearts and can resort to rather spectacular, often violent displays of outburst in case they are misled into believing that their beloved leader's health was possibly worse than critical, reporting on a developing story such as this can be tricky indeed.
The riotous situation that might follow in the wake of a misjudged and rushed announcement, without determining its veracity to the last Y, would not only be difficult to control, but could even be fatal. And media would have had blood on its hands had the events taken such a turn, despite the staggering police presence in the area surrounding Apollo Hospital in Chennai. There have been indeed some reports of police resorting to lathicharge as an emotional and wailing crowd went out of control, at the bare mention of a possible deterioration of Amma's health.
#AIADMK cadre get violent at #ApolloHospitals, amidst report on Thanthi TV that #Jayalalithaa is no more. No official confirmation yet
— T S Sudhir (@Iamtssudhir) December 5, 2016
Total chaos, violence outside Apollo Hospital. Barricades being smashed. #Jayalalithaa
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) December 5, 2016
Fortunately, such a situation of frenzy on the streets has been avoided so far, even though Jaya's supporters have been thronging the streets by tens of thousands, praying hard for their Amma, resolutely stationed outside the hospital, some even offering free food to the people, some ferrying them to places close by.
However, that is certainly not all in case of the layer within layer of concealment and complication. There is an air of extreme secrecy around Jayalalithaa's failing health, which is a perfect petri dish to culture both wild rumours and premature headlines. Ever since September 22 when she was admitted to Chennai's Apollo Hospital after complaints of "dehydration and fever", there has been no consensus on the state of Amma's health. A spate of statements from Apollo Hospital has been issued from time to time, littered with the honorific "Hon'ble" with updates that have been more confusing than clarifying.
While it's the bane of our breaking news culture that we often rush with the story even before finding out what is at the root of the problem, all for getting those initial TRPs and hits, what cannot be ruled out in this case happens to be the head-on collision between media's rollercoaster ride of 24X7 news cycle feeding off the latest development, sometimes even before it has happened, and the extremely clandestine nature of political goings-on within the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham. The shroud of secrecy is way too thick for media to penetrate, and therefore, any hurried utterances run the risk of going horribly wrong.
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| Confusion is bound to emanate from a wellspring of artificially-ensured silence around Amma's health. [Photo: Agencies] |
But what happens to reportage in such a case? Does it simply play along with the government-sanctioned trickle of news, mostly misleading and often contradictory, and latch on gratefully to every morsel of information that is thrown at it by the party spokespersons? While the line of responsibility must never be crossed, particularly in situations as delicate as these, it must also admitted that the said line is often rather blurred and indistinguishable from the press release brand of journalism.
When Sushma Swaraj set an example by tweeting about her kidney problem, most in the media and public sphere lauded her brave move. Truly, at a time when secrecy surrounding the health conditions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and of late Tamil Nadu CM and iconic leader Jayalalithaa had become the norm, Swaraj changed the game significantly.
I am in AIIMS because of kidney failure. Presently, I am on dialysis. I am undergoing tests for a Kidney transplant. Lord Krishna will bless
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) November 16, 2016
However, it seems that it was a one-time and rare display of transparency and accountability from a serving minister and eminent politician. Moreover, we cannot expect others to follow Swaraj's suit simply because it is a question of medical privacy and individual choice.
The larger question about the role privacy - particularly pertaining to the medical condition - plays in determining the trajectory of a public office-bearer, particularly the serving chief minister of a state and the leader of a political party, is really the elephant in the room that no one wants to see. That Jayalalithaa's failing health has dragged Tamil Nadu down for about 75 days now, that the resistance against a central government-orchestrated financial mess that is demonetisation has been minimal in Tamil Nadu because everyone has been more worried about their CM, cannot be denied.
As Namita Bhandare has pointed out, had we known about Mohammad Ali Jinnah's closely guarded illness, the history of India's independence movement might have had a different outcome. But the clandestine nature of realpolitick is such that official secrets lay the path to many a violent episode scarring once more a nation's already much wounded body and memory.
Under such circumstances, it becomes a little more nuanced a point than merely pointing fingers at a hasty media, all too eager to announce something which may or may not have happened. That a flag was lowered at AIADMK headquarter and then hoisted to full-mast in matter of minutes isn't an excuse, but it certainly points to a flurry of confusion that is bound to emanate from a wellspring of artificially-ensured silence.
Watch: Jayalalithaa critical: Security beefed up at Tamil Nadu-Kerala border