`We are the Establishment` This is how Vineet Jain replied to a question in an interview. Vineet is one of the Jain brothers, who own Bennet Coleman & Company, which controls the Times of India Media Group comprising of Newspapers, TV Channels, FM Radio Stations, Websites etc. The question was asked to Vineet Jain by `The New Yorker’ a prestigious weekly magazine published from USA. The magazine had published a story titled `Citizen Jain` in which this interview appeared. The title was synonymous with a famous Hollywood movie of yesteryears called `Citizen Kane`. The movie was based on the life of William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper tycoon (in those times there was no MEDIA) whose influence and power spread across US polity, society & economy. Orson Welles depicted the role of Hearst and was acclaimed for this performance.
The `New Yorker` cover story was titled `Citizen Jain`, to indicate that Jain brothers are wielding similar influence in India. The reply of Vineet Jain to interviewer’s question showed that the Jain Brothers also realise the power that they have and their willingness to use it whenever they want and for whatever purpose they need to use it.
How enormous this POWER is and how the ESTABLISHMENT flaunts it and uses it to crystallise the public opinion in whichever way it wants, can just be gauged by taking a cursory look at the events of the past 3-4 years.
And thereby hangs the tale of ETHICS IN MEDIA
Let us just take the example of agitation of `India Against Corruption’ for setting up LOKPAL. The agitation was led by Anna Hazare in which the present Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, his present political rival and BJP candidate for Chief Minister’s post during Delhi election Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan & Yogendra Yadav were leading participants. The fast by Anna Hazare on the Ramlila grounds in New Delhi and the agitation lasted for nearly eight days. The Media—particularly News Channels—gave a saturation coverage to this agitation. The economics of Media demands a certain percentage of advertisement per hour of telecast. This mandates that for any half hour slot of telecast, there should be at least 12-15 minutes of advertisements. In fact, this rule is so mandatory that many important news programmes are cut short for telecasting advertisements. In spite of this, we would find that during those days of Anna Hazare’s agitation, the News Channels deliberately gave up about 600 crores of advertisement revenue by giving coverage to Hazare’s agitation without a advertisement break. Most of the News Channels, barring one or two, are in complete financial mess. In such a dire financial situation, how could these channels afford to lose so much revenue? The answer is that the Media companies which telecast these channels were promised that their loss would be compensated. Who could have given such a promise? The parties who were thinking of getting political benefit from the agitation and were aware of the power of Media to influence public opinion. How could a political party muster such a huge financial resource is a question which would naturally arise. Again, the answer would be that ties–or to use the cliché ‘nexus’—that have bonded together the political parties and corporate as well as other financial lobbies over a period of the last few decades. Of course, all these details are in the realm of speculation as nobody would be ready to provide upfront details about Media groups’ real financial dealing other than the statutory requirements. Still the fact remains that during Anna Hazare’s agitation, all the News Channels gave a saturation coverage without advertisement breaks and willingly gave up revenue.
Immediately after this agitation there were a series of exposes by almost all News Channels, major Newspapers as well as News magazines about various scams and the focus of the coverage was generally one sided. It depicted the then UPA government as a villain and branded most of the prominent ministers in the government as mired in corruption and nepotism without being factually objective. That created a general impression across the society that the government is anti-people and is not really interested in protecting as well as furthering the interests of common people and national interests. This helped the opposition to crystallise the public opinion against the then government. The campaign during 2014 Lok Sabha elections showed the reliance of political parties on Media and their attempts of using the Media as a tool to influence the public opinion. The latest example is that of various scandals about ministers in Central and Maharashtra as well as some other state governments. All of a sudden in second half of June all these scams are getting surfaced in the Media. Why this is happening and how could this have happened are the questions and if we try to find out the answers of these questions by relating this present scenario with the events during UPA period, it will lead us to the conclusion that these SCAMS are coming under the Media glare due to a definite design. The designer who may have sketched the design seems to be a section of influential corporate lobby which perceives that the present political set up has not been really beneficial for them. The scenario before May 2014 was crafted by the corporate and other business and commercial interest coming together with a firm view that the then government was detrimental to their interests and should not be allowed to come again to power. These lobbies funded the Media campaign before and during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The same process of using Media to corner the present political set up seems to have been initiated. Otherwise, the sudden spurt of scams being revealed does not have any logical explanation.
All the above examples indicate the POWER of the ESTABLISHMENT and how this ESTABLISHMENT can become a tool in the hands of moneybags to be used in whatever way they want to influence the public opinion or to tarnish any ones image and credibility. How this POWER of the ESTABLISHMENT can destroy the careers and reputations of prominent people was displayed when transcripts of Radia Tapes were published
In such a scenario, business interests have dominated the functioning of Media groups rather than any Ethical framework. In a classical definition, PRESS is the FOURTH PILLAR of Democracy. All other three pillars of Democracy do not have any connection with BUSINESS. Though the PRESS has been termed as a FOURTH PILLAR, it is primarily a business venture. This uniqueness of PRESS (and now MEDIA) bestows on it a huge responsibility to perform the ideal role assigned to it. This puts a burden on PRESS to perform its function ethically. As per these ideals, newspapers (and Media in contemporary times) should be a watchdog to protect people’s interests, rights and freedoms. It should act objectively without any fear and favour and should not show any bias or inclination towards any particular group, section or community. Objectivity and adherence to truth should be the only guiding factor for any journalist working in print, electronic or web Media. Of course, these ideals are easy to preach and very hard to observe.
Evolution of the press
This would become clear as we look back on the evolution of PRESS in India. The evolution of Indian Press had a background of Freedom Struggle. Most of the regional languages as well as English Newspapers (barring newspapers such as Times of India or Statesman, which were owned by British) of those times were the vehicles of nationalist propaganda and their main objective was to project nationalistic viewpoint. Therefore, they had less `NEWS` and more `VIEWS`. The Newspapers really began to evolve as an INDUSTRY after Independence. The competition increased. So revenue earning became much more important. This could happen only with more advertisement. If a product is to be advertised in a particular Newspaper, then the producer would obviously be interested in finding out the readership profile of the Newspaper to gauge whether that section of people would be in a position to buy his product. If the readership profile does not match with the profile of the product, then advertising in that particular newspaper will be of no use for the producer. As the competition increased, there was a scramble to corner the advertisement revenue. This tilted the balance in favour of advertiser. This was the point at which the editorial control over the Newspapers started loosening and Advertising and Marketing departments became much more dominant. The advertiser started dictating terms and initiating process to demand the change in readership profile so as to suit the needs of a particular product. For example, if any Newspaper wanted an advertisement from FMCG company then it was asked to prove that the readership has a economic capacity to purchase such products. If the Newspaper had no compatible readership profile and still it asked for the advertisement, then the company started demanding that it should change the readership profile by publishing news items liked and usually read by the consumers who are likely to purchase those products. So step by step, the `CONTENTS` of the Newspapers started getting managed by the Advertisement & Marketing departments on the cue given by the advertising agencies. This slide back acquired much speed after the 1991 economic liberalisation an opening up of various sectors of economy. New technology came into the industry. The Newspaper and magazines became much more colourful, sleek and glitzy. Then, satellite TV made its entry. Later on followed by News Channels. Now PRESS became MEDIA. The leading Media group like the Times of India declared itself as an ENTERTAINMENT GROUP. MEDIA became much more a business than a FOURTH PILLAR of DEMOCRACY.
The Paid News controversy which rocked the Media world was inevitable in such a scenario. Since a long time, political parties used to influence reporters and other journalistic staff to get a favourable news coverage. In the race to garner more and more revenue—in short to make more money—the owners of Newspapers decided to strike a deal with political parties themselves. That is how the NEWS became PAID.
Ethical FPAMEWORK
And in such a situation, it is no surprise that the Ethical Framework in the functioning of any MEDIA GROUP has been put on back burner. This framework has not been demolished, but it is very rarely followed and only invoked when a gross indecent and sensational reportage is published or telecast. The readership and viewership numbers dominate the discourse about Media now a days. TRP reigns supreme in electronic Media and to increase TRP ratings day by day the News Channels are becoming more and more sensational and predatory. Obviously it has become much more easier for Corporate and Financial moneybags to influence the Media discourse with a carrot of easy finance as well as increase in TRP ratings.
Still there are a number of enterprising and intrepid journalists, in both print and electronic Media, who are inspired by the ideals and who adhere to the ethical framework. Unfortunately the space in the Media for such journalists is shrinking day by day, as the work culture gets degraded by unethical influences of money and muscle power and the reluctance of the ESTABLISHMENT to step in to clean up. In fact many a times the ESTABLISHMENT itself encourages these influences and allows them a free rein. The recent events of attack on Journalists in Uttar Pradesh an Madhya Pradesh are indicators of this trend. Of course, it must not be overlooked that access potential of a journalist and disproportionate influence wielded by even a small district Newspaper or a Video Channel encourages many unwanted elements in this profession, whose main aim is earning money be using blackmailing technique.
A statutory body like the Press Council of India or professional set up like Editors Guild have now become redundant institutions. They do not have any legal teeth and they can only admonish a recalcitrant Media group or an individual or a group of Journalists. Therefore, these institutions are not taken seriously. The electronic Media has set up an Ombudsman. But his observations and orders on complaints made are more than often overlooked. The associations or organisations of working journalists are prone to be more active on the issues of pecuniary and other benefits rather than about issues of ethical functioning.
Conclusion
Overall it is a depressing scenario and therein lies a danger to the freedom of Media. The sensational, predatory, unethical functioning is creating revulsion across the society against the Media. This has started impinging on the credibility of the Media. This opens up a space for the powers that be to step and introduce some measures to curb the freedom in the name of putting an end to sensationalism of the Media. To guard against this danger, Media professionals must proactively initiate a process for internal discussion and debate to evolve a mechanism for enforcing ethical functioning. A collective action may be able to convince or at least force the ESTABLISHMENT to step in and help the professionals to rein in the predatory and sensational tendencies.
