Huhhh..This is the kind of news that gets flashed on the News channels repeatedly. And they repeat it till you get bored and swap the channel. But the sad part is that which ever channel you reach, you happen to read the same thing.
People were tolerant before, but now more and more people are getting frustrated with this. In fact media is one topic of fun and comedy when we do not have anything to discuss to pass the time.
I think we really need a media censor board just like we have films censor board, to filter the crap that they show.
Aaj Tak which was once upon a time one of the best channels however these days i see more of ghost stories like...some ghost killing every villager in a highway, or some child claiming to be the re-incarnation of Kalpana chawla.
Media is sometime so hungry for publicity that they have proved dangerous to people many times. A year back they had motivated a person to self immolate himself for better wages, so that media can get some news to cover . I had blogged on this before here.
The recent one is the case of a teenage boy Adnan who was murdered recently by few people and media is being held responsible for this. It seems Adnan's parents had registered a police complaint and had requested the police not to reveal the information, because they don't want the kidnapper to get annoyed. But media did not keep quite, and kept on flashing the news on the TV. After seeing the media coverage, the scared and confused kidnappers took the extreme step of killing the boy.
Adnan's friends and relatives along with orkut members are going to organise a rally on Sept 9th in Mumbai for justice. Check here
It's high time we get the censor board introduced, just the way we have for films. This will help in ensuring that the media is more responsible towards public and determined towards their work .
5 comments:
I don't agree with you on this. I, as a principle, hate any censorship. Censoring news is the worst thing a country can do. See what is happening in China right now... well actually nobody can see what is happening in China because the news is censored.
In the tragic case of Andan. I didn't read the story before. From what you are describing, it seems like it's the stupidity of our police department to leak the info. It is irresponsible of the media to publish the news but it doesn't warrant a censor board!
media has to be censored whenever it publishes the news with it's opinion .
Earlier news channels gave only news and left it for public to make opinions. Whereas nowdays news channels publish information in the way they want people to understand it. That's where media needs to be censored.
If Amitabh bachan says " I am feeling bad for Sanjay dutt, but law cannot be changed', then media will publish the headline as 'Amitabh says he is feeling bad for Sanjay dutt'...they leave the second line he has made so that people read the news.
Media has to be censored not to censor the news, but the censor the marketing element in the news.
If u want to avoid the problem China is facing then you will need to identify the right way of censoring and right people to censor. having good policies can give media all the freedom they need, by at the same time censoring the way of presenting.
You seem to suggest a well regulated and disciplined reporting with self control mechanism by media itself for a healthy reporting that will go a long way to create a healthy society in a country like ours with pluralistic society where even minor sensation leads to disastrious situations.A sort of self sensorship.A well thought suggestion most relevant to the prevalent condition.This is necessary not only to print media but also to the electronic media which has much more impact on the society.This is one like "Readers'Editor"which some of the leading dailies have introduced in the recent times.Any media establishment can form a "Report regulating Committee"(or call it a Censor Committee)to check and filter mischievous reports and pass on only such reports which not only stregthen the establishment for its true reporting but also the society at large,a must for our country
Anjana,
I would love to see censorship of the media on all the examples that you cite in the article.
but once a censorship comes in politics follows. the censorship then will not be for the geninue content but for the political mileage the ruling party can extract by putting in such a censorship.
You may never hear of a ruling party member being held up on corruption ; but may hear a oppposition party member not keeping his house clean.
As much as we would love to... i think we are better off with listening to crap than to biassed news.
Well, We have our handy censor tool of our own dont we ? REMOTE :-)
Nice writeup...
Santoz
well Santosh..Remote works well for matured audience , but not everyone is matured:).So in that case it's media's social responsibility to be matured themselves.
And i as well can see the problems that might come from censorship, but i am not talking of censoring content, i am only talking of censoring the marketing element and competition stunts.(Remember the recent case of School teacher being blamed for doing prostitution by a TV channel )
And even movies are censored, but do u feel because of that directors have lost the freedom to make movies?No right!.So i hope similar thing will be in the case of Indian media as well, and what happened in China wil not happen here.
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