Anger on the air waves, attacks on the ground

Wednesdays attack on Prashant Bhushan has raised questions about the electronic media, and what role it plays in further polarisation, the increasing intolerance and violence.

Is there an intrinsic pattern to a certain kind of reportage and the events on the ground, asks Nupur Basu
Posted/Updated Thursday, Oct 13 14:28:00, 2011

Wednesdays inhumane attack on eminent Supreme Court lawyer, Prashant Bhushan has raised many questions not only about the organisation that carried out the attack but also about the electronic media, and what role it plays in further polarisation, the increasing intolerance and violence. Is there an intrinsic pattern to a certain kind of reportage and the events on the ground? Radha Kumar , Interlocutor ,J&K made a very poignant point to Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN " The tone and tenor of electronic media is very bad - you are pitting people against each other all the time in your shows..you should not be surprised at the attack !" Sardesai agreed that the media does need to introspect on whether it is promoting polarisation in our society:"Our job is to debate all sides in a fair way -our job is not to create further divides in society- we should not fan the 'us' and 'them' phenomenon and polarsie people further." One wonders whether Times Now, the channel which is one of the biggest offenders, is in any mood to introspect. Its Editor, Arnab Goswami, is always polarising people and taking open editorial positions against human rights activists and authors like Arundhuti Roy. In fact there are lots of unanswered questions about the how-come and whys of the presence of Times Now crew in Prashant Bhushan's room when the attackers entered and started beating up the Supreme Court lawyer. Had the Times Now team been forewarned by the Ram Sene group and had they quickly taken an appointment with Mr Prashanth Bhushan in order to ensure they were present ? Ram Sene and organisations like that are known to pre-warn the media (particularly TV channels) so they get all the coverage when they attack. This had happened during the pub attacks on girls and boys in Mangalore. The attack on that ocassion was also by Ram Sene. The timing of the interview sought by Times Now from Mr Bhushan could be crucial clue to this nagging doubt that many have that all was not above board in the Times Now

presence in the lawyer's room. Also if they were not aware of the Ram Sene attack and had come in genuinely for an interview, why did they not try to protect Mr Bhushan ? Wasnt it the most natural and humane thing to do ? Why did they instead continue filming in such a calm manner ? One has never seen an unfolding violent event being covered in such a steady tripod! The camera does not falter even once ,leave alone show any surprise. Any veteran television person will tell you that the cameraman was prepared and not surprised one bit by the attack ! The fact that the Times Now managed to get a news coup by not only showing this footage exclusively, but later allowing all channels to use it with a Times Now logo suggests that there was more to it then meets the eye. TSR Subramaniam on NDTV was asking Nidhi Razdan whether Times Now had given the footage free, but Razdan just laughed off the question and did not reply. The media is shy of discussing the warts of other media ostensibly on grounds of solidarity. But in reality they will not raise these issues simply because they were not interested in raising issues of media ethics. This was evident during the Radia Tapes controversy where other then the magazines that broke the story, Open andOutlook, the rest of the media had a news blackout on the issue and the major media players who had been named. "Such questions have always been raised right from the Tiananmen Square coverage and I think Times Now did an excellent job" said Shazia Ilmi, a journalist and member of Team Anna, coming to the channels defense on several chat shows through the evening. Arnab Goswami on his evening programme on the night of the attack decided to be politically correct and condemned the attack. He pulled up one of his guests saying "You seem to be justifying the attack- that is bad!" Normally on the issue of Kashmir , Goswami has been known to take a clear hawkish editorial stand in which he has rubbished the "other point of view" coming from Arundhuti Roy, Prashant Bhushan, Gautam Navlakha and many others. His polarised positions were what Radha Kumar was referring to. On Times Now Nalini Singh also warned the media:" Media should also watch and guard against its strident and divisive coverage/analyses". No doubt this warning will be short lived for channels like the one Singh was on, bent on

bolstering its TRPs at any cost. The footage obtained in Bhushan's room needs more investigation as the entire attack is examined by the court . Will the News Broadcasters Associations self regulatory authority look into this? If it is found that the Time Now team had been there because they forewarned by the Ram Sene ,then they should be duly held responsible for allowing the attack to take place and not warning the police earlier. The footage reveals that it could have gone hopelessly wrong for the frail lawyer being pummeled and kicked like that by the goons. Times Now would have been responsible for inaction and simply standing and filming the event for its own narrow purpose of a getting a scoop. It raises major issues of media ethics and it should be discussed openly in media forums. Rogue media cannot be allowed to go unchecked as it tarnishes everyone in the business. Its also interesting to see other people's responses. Why did Kiran Bedi keep calling the attackers "these boys"..was she embarassed to find that there was a BJP connection? She went onto add "during our time we used to keep a ruffians register - it will be interesting to know if the police had these people on this register.For someone who has been so virulent about attacking corrupt Congressmen, her kid-glove response to the attackers is indeed surprising. Kavita Shrivastava, General Secretray, PUCL whose houses was searched recently by Chattisgarh police on allegations of giving shelter to a naxalite (the search did not yield anything, needless to say) made a relevant point: "When the government itself attacks human rights activists , then no wonder these right wing elements get emboldened and feel free to attack anyone, anytime. Recently some people attacked Arundhuti Roy when she was releasing her book..attacks on human rights activists by government is on the rise..when the state tries to crush people's initiatives, then non-state players too get encouraged" Shrivastava told Anubha Bhonsle of CNN-IBN on her 8 pm programme. Yasin Malik,Chairman ,JKLF, on CNN -IBN was saying "These are the people who killed Gandhi in India - freedom of expression is a battle of ideas and if you do not allow it, you will have violence." On the same channel Kashmiri Pandit activist, Aditya Kaul Raj was hollering non stop at Rajdeep Sardesai for making him share the same space

with Yasin Malik and was spouting the same kind of venom as the attackers did on Bhusan. This forced Sardesai to tell the Kashmiri Pandit : The culture of violence begets violence and it is a triumph of India democracy and free speech that you and Yasin Mailk can share and debate on the same forum. His plea fell on deaf ears. The post script to this ugly televised episode came from the man who had a miraculous escape on Wednesday, Prashant Bhushan :" In Hitler's Germany they used to do things like this by attacking anyone who did not buy into their philosophy--the Ram Sene needs to be socially ostracised and banned by the government of India". Is anyone listening to anything in this country? Till the next attack
http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php? storyid=5541&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=5&valid=true