About reporting the truth, the Indian media wouldn’t be damned almost everyday. Nor would it shrink to a state where almost all of us give a 90 percent margin to its reportage. The Indian Express reports:
Protests began early this morning when in a show of solidarity, mediapersons, print and broadcast, assembled at the Chandigarh Press Club. Dheer’s wife Sonia narrated how Punjab policemen stormed into her house and took away Dheer. Her mother remarked that this could happen to any citizen and if the police were allowed to get away with this, the liberty of everyone was at stake.
A resolution moved by Swadesh Talwar, Regional Photo Editor of The Indian Express, announcing the boycott of any press conference by IG Sumedh Singh Saini was unanimously passed.
Jagtar Singh Sidhu, president of Chandigarh Press Club; B S Jandu, president of Tribune Employees’ Union, Vinod Kohli of National Union of Journalists and Ramesh Vinayak, bureau chief of India Today also spoke on the occasion to express their support for Dheer. Later, the assembled reporters marched from the Press Club to the BBMB Bhavan venue where both Punjab and Haryana Chief Ministers were to take part in a function.
Amarinder was gheraoed the moment he entered the office and met a delegation of the media immediately.
That feels nice, this show of brotherhood cutting across mediahouses. It augurs well for the nation to see them guard liberty this zealously. Yet questions remain about the very integrity of journalists who have all but sold themselves out to businessmen and netas. I recall reading somewhere that today’s journalists are no longer the pyjama-kurta-and-jhola-clad caricatures who only care about exposing the evils of the society. For the right price–or a personal motive–a Vir Sanghvi will fawn over Sonia’s “renunciation.”
On 08.31.05 parimal gupta says:
Yea, the journalists have sold their souls to the highest bidder. I really like the blog
http://spindianexpress.blogspot.com
The author has in his own unique way teared down the Indian Express, which lot of us still
believe is all about “Journalism of Courage”.
I had once written to the editor of IE, asking them to change the tag line of IE to -
“Journalism of Courage; As long as it does not offend the Gandhis”.
Surely IE has come down a few steps from those Arun Shourie and Bofors days.
But no point in blaming IE. Today all media houses, right from NDTV to TOI to The Hindu, all are
toing the line set by their masters in Dehli. Objective journalism is not in fashion anymore
(if at all it was at sometime).
Sandeep, i really appreciate people like you and some other bloggers who have taken up this
blogging. Atleast by visiting you guys, we are spared of the one sided leftist bombarding of TOI
,The Hindu,IE et al.
I rarely visit the online newspapers. I prefer visiting blogs. Hopefully someday these very
blogs will free us from the leftist opinion maker’s stranglehold on the national dialogue.
On 09.01.05 Sandeep says:
Parimal,
Thanks for the overwhelming praise. You’re right. The media has sold out itself to the establishmen t in a damn big way. The real test–as I said in an older entry–for the Indian media was during the Emergency. Their failure back then is slowly being reflected in today’s reportage. Yeah, the bit about Leftism has also contributed to the damage.