In course of politics and journalism, heated discussions took place in all spheres of the state in the last few days. Consequently, the dust accumulated on the words such as ideal journalism, journalistic values was also shaken off. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis put this wonderful and interesting story before the people of Maharashtra with evidence that the projects that were not approved for the state were given birth by the former rulers of the state through surrogacy.
While putting this story before the public, Fadnavis
also put before Maharashtra the documentary evidence of how the program of
sending two industries, Tata Airbus and Saffron, out of Maharashtra was
ceremoniously done during the Mahavikas Aghadi government. While exposing this ‘test
tube baby’ in the form of news stating that these two projects decided to move
out of Maharashtra during the Shinde – Fadnavis government, he used the term
HMV (His Master’s Voice). This phrase became a catalyst for further discussion
of journalism. While this discussion was going on, news was published that the
portal ‘The Wire’ had decided to remove some news from their portal. This
reminded me of a famous quote by the renowned French writer Margaret Duras. She
said, “Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a
moralist. It’s unavoidable.” Similarly, I was also reminded of the character of
a journalist named Digu Tipnis in Jabbar Patel’s film Simshana.
While the credibility of journalism as a whole has been
questioned at a time when it is easy to use social media to spread news without
checking whether it is true or false, the happenings of the last few days have
given rise to thoughts about the fourth pillar of democracy. The current hot
topic is fake news reporting, targeting a political party or a government. The
portal ‘The Wire’ cited in the title, recently released some news regarding
national head of BJP's IT cell Amit Malviya. ‘The Wire’ reported that
if Mr. Malviya objected to some posts published on Instagram, the specific
posts get deleted from Instagram. Mr. Malviya issued a legal notice to the
editors of ‘The Wire’ over this news, saying that the news was published with
the intention of defaming him. An FIR was also filed against ‘The Wire’. ‘The
Wire’ publicly admitted that the news about Mr. Malviya was false and declared
that it was removing the news about Mr. Malviya from its portal. ‘The Wire’ has
a great reputation in the so-called secular media world. In its disclosure, the
portal has defended stating that the information received by its correspondent
was incorrect. While publishing such kind of news about Mr. Malviya or anyone
else, it is necessary for the journalist to at least verify its authenticity.
This perception was not observed by the correspondents of ‘The Wire’. These
congregations did not realize that they were undermining the credibility of the
media through such kind of reporting.
It is the inherent duty of journalism to hold the
rulers to account for their mistakes and to hang the blunders of the
bureaucracy and the system in front of the public. It is the inherent duty of
journalists to guard their ethics while performing this duty. But, there have
been many instances of fake news being published in a bid to target a party or
the government of any specific party. Let us have a look at some incidents. It
happened almost four years ago in Ghati Hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar
(formerly Aurangabad) that a picture of a girl standing next to her father on
the bed with a bottle of saline in her hand and based on that, a news,
criticising the health system of the state was published in some newspapers.
This news was prominently published by Samana, the mouthpiece of Uddhav
Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, which was then in power with the Bharatiya Janata Party
in the state. A well-known chain newspaper published from Sambhaji Nagar
checked the authenticity of the news and the photograph, and proved the report
to be completely false. The girl disclosed that she was made to stand with a
bottle of saline in her hand only to take a photograph. That girl’s name was
Dhrupada Gawli. Naturally, there are doubts about the motive behind publishing
such sensational news against the government.
The news stating that some projects have moved out of
the state after the Shinde – Fadnavis government came to power, was recently
published by the media with great fanfare. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra
Fadnavis revealed that these reports are wrong with strong evidence. Fadnavis
had stated that the news was released to defame the state and some journalists
were part of it. An article written against this by a journalist association
President was published through Social Media. The article started with the
sentence 5 industries recently moved out of the state.
A journalist objected to this sentence and asked the
President of the journalists’ association, which projects were exited and when,
however, the concerned writer failed to provide any such information. On the
contrary, the author asked the question that if the industries had gone out
during the tenure of the Mahavikas Aghadi, what did the then opposition party
i.e. Bharatiya Janata Party do? While stating that 5 industries have moved out
of the state, this senior journalist did not even bother to check the truth behind
it. This journalist was taken aback by the term HMV used by Fadnavis. A similar
situation is currently going on with some news. In the absence of any evidence,
one would naturally suspect that there must be someone else, other than a
select few journalists writing such news that industries went out during the
Shinde -Fadnavis regime.
This situation reminds me of the character of a
journalist named Digu Tipnis portrayed by Nilu Phule in Dr. Jabbar Patel’s
movie named ‘Sinshanan’. Theme of this movie was based on politics. This Digu
Tipnis knows many veteran political leaders. He is in constant touch with the
Chief Minister, along with all senior leaders of ruling and opposition parties.
Finance Minister Vishwasrao Dabhade in the movie is constantly playing tricks
to trap the Chief Minister in a dilemma. As a move in this strategy, he decides
to resign as Finance Minister. Digu Tipnis had already heard this news from an
MLA. However, without hurrying to release it immediately, Digu contacts
Vishwasrao Dabhade. Admitting that he has resigned, Vishwasrao
Dabhade's character requests Digu not to publish the news. However,
Digu Tipnis ignores that request and publishes the news of Dabhade's
resignation. Everyone should know the difference between the news reporting of
Digu Tipnis and current news reporting. Not all journalists report in this way.
There are a large number of journalists who still practice pure and unbiased
reporting. Media giants have yet to comment on ‘The Wire’ apology. The news
that the Safran’s factory was started in Hyderabad a year ago, was published in
many famous newspapers. Despite this, reports of this industry moving out of
Maharashtra during the Shinde-Fadnavis government were also reported with a
bang. It is up to each person to decide what kind of journalism this has
proved.
(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online- 07 Nov.2022)
Keshav Upadhye,
Chief Spokesperson
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