By D N Singh
While observing the National Press Day it would not be imperative here to define the role of the Press or the media as a whole.
In simple parlance, a journalist is an intermediary between the people and the system that rules. A journalist is obliged to communicate the problems and aspirations of the people, who are the strength of the national fabric and possibly point out the lapses or short comings of the system which can be addressed by the ruling system.
A journalist is supposed to write or show that he or she sees not what he or she is told to see or told to report. That is where the Truth prevails for the good of all.
Going to report as told by the government is not the ethical side but that is purely public relation exercise, which perhaps not good for the either of the two, the journalism fraternity and the government.
But that is what many often is seen that either the media is inclined for many untold reasons to stop reporting the truth or being cajoled to ignore the truth in order to help the wrongs of a government.
Which is detrimental to the spirits of the constitution laid down for all.
It may be recalled that once father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi had said about the media that, “cease to be ruled”.
But the realities on the ground reveal that somewhere and somehow, the present day’s press freedom is at a cross road.
In 2017, the country was ranked 136 out of 180 nations, and later it declined to 138 in 2018 in the world index report. The 2022 edition of the World Press Freedom Index, which assesses the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories, reveals that India’s ranking fell from 133 in 2016 to 150 in 2021.
What does the above figures indicate at. Is it muzzling of the media or the press? Is media somewhere is coerced to work as told by a government of a state or the country?
There have been many instances in last few years, when media has been caught in the middle of a dilemma on certain reportage.
For instance, the fresh challenges that the country faces is that of inflation which has become spiral and the media had in many occasions seen reporting the facts with hiccups when the real people feel cheated.
Flaws of the political leaders, mainly in power, are seen let to go free from any critical analysis and even certain top leaders have been shying away from a direct dialogue with the media.
Let’s take the tragic incident of Morbi, on which the judiciary has to take suo motu cognizance to know what went so wrong that more than 140 people died including the children.
The media reportage from the ground zero on Morbi appeared so wanting. Far less than being substantial and probing in content.
No need to reiterate here that freedom of the press is the most important wheel of democracy. Without a free press, a democracy cannot exist. In fact, the press is a great medium that conveys the truth to people. However, it cannot function fully if the press is not free.
So, the cost of freedom is eternal vigilance for which it is the role of the media to keep the nation in vigil and at the same time it is the role of the media that, it has to monitor that peoples’ freedom is not trampled by the governments.
These days, it is found that, the media cannot ask uncomfortable questions to any top echelon in the ruling set up. Just the media has to record what it is being told. A kind of public relation exercise, more or less.
Many media set ups show signs of a fear psychosis when it is being critical about the government. Many journalists have been rendered to a state of uselessness because of reporting the truth.
