The Media is on trial

Those following political developments in Kerala will be aware of the pressures and tribulations under which the media had been functioning of late. Men of the electronics media were at the receiving end when they tried to report some of the unending and macabre protests called by political parties recently. Obviously they do not want the viewing public to see the ugly side of their protests, their lawlessness and anti–social behaviour.

Such attacks reflect the increasing intolerance of politicians and their willingness to take the law into their own hands to muzzle the press. This is a dangerous trend and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy did well to direct the police to take action against those who sought to attack or obstruct journalists doing their duty.

The media world was a topic of heated discussion in many Malayalam channels obviously prompted by the controversies of the day. One of the veteran journalists, K M Roy, was critical of the preoccupation of the newspapers with a current sex scandal involving a minister. He was categorical that the press had no justification for filling its front pages with accusations and counter accusations around the scandal day after day while there were other pressing problems to focus on. Elaborating on the theme, he said the preoccupation of the Press with trivia of the elite should stop.

And he was right. Very often, they are tempted to play to the gallery, to pamper to baser tastes of the readers. The voyeuristic coverage of scandals are bound to increase circulation and bring profits to the proprietors, but journalists should not lose sight of those ethics of their profession while trying to win favours from pay masters.

There is also need to check personal ambitions for many mistakes are likely to occur in the race for a name by cooking up stories based on inaccurate data or information. The Kerala chief minister himself became the target recently in a scandal–mongering story put up by a Malayalam magazine that goes by the name “Exclusive.” A VVIP traveling by Amruta Express on the night of March 7 was behind an “alarming incident” reported by the magazine.

Unfortunately for the poor journalist the joy of authoring a scoop involving a VVIP and his romance with a strange lady was short –lived. After two more magazines reproduced the story, it turned out that the VVIP with “unkempt hair” happened to be the chief minister and the strange woman with whom he was found in a “compromising position,” his wife Mariamma. The chief minister talking later to journalists explained: “ I was traveling with my wife to Thrissur. Since I was down with fever I could not sleep on the upper berth and I remained on the lower berth where my wife was sleeping. After sitting for a while heavily medicated, I fell asleep on the same berth unintentionally. A woman traveler, who was keeping a close watch raised an alarm. When the train examiner and others were convinced about our position, they brushed aside the incident.”

It should be considered the joke of the year. Such jokes, however, rudely strike at the credibility of a journal. It must caution young careerists about the need to check and re–check facts while digging out scandals.

Readers may recall that when the present President Kalam took office, some of the major papers carried detailed stories on his hairstyle. A fashion magazine may justifiably flaunt the information, but for a serious paper read by the common man, there should be more relevant stories to fill its front page.