By Mithun Ganesh:
Journalism is an art practiced right since ages. Many faces that are scribed in Indian history practiced journalism — Bal Gangadhar Thilak, Subramania Bharathiar, Rabindranath Tagore to name a few. The journals published showed people the way, the right. But now, Journalism has joined the likes of religion. Everyone in power runs their own magazine and the magazine is the biography of their deeds.
Consider a state X. Let there be three parties which fights for power there. So we see that there would be three dailies, three TV channels, three FM stations and so on. To get news about the respective achievements of each party look into the respective party’s media and to know about the behind the screen activities which took place for the achievements look at the other party’s media.
So what we see in Indian politics is a complex grid of not lies but truth hidden. The hidden truth has brought out a new ideology — “Pen is mightier than the sword. Power is even mightier than pen.” This ideology survives even in this world of democracy. When the mysteries surrounding 2G spectrum were leaked, there were no news in dailies barring The Hindu to show light on it. People could never know more about the incident till the tapes were officially released by The Open. This is not the journalism we know and this is not the journalism we should know.
Today, power has definitely driven off journalism to back seat. Monarchy is back but it is in disguise under the mask — none other than democracy itself. We are animals ruled by a lion. This is definitely a jungle. We are nodding our heads to the lion’s orders; if we do not act now, we will definitely be a prey to the lion soon.
A lighter moment:
Politician of today goes to Politician of yesterday’s house.
Politician of today:Â Your house is lavish. How did you manage the finance?
Politician of yesterday:Â You see a bridge there?
Politician of today: Yes.
Politician of yesterday:Â I built this house from the money funded for it.
Now it’s Politician of yesterday’s turn to visit Politician of today.
Politician of yesterday:Â Your house is much bigger than mine. How did you manage?
Politician of today: You see a bridge there?
Politician of yesterday:Â No.
Politician of today:Â I built this house with the funds of that bridge.
Though they were late, journals of yesterday at least showed us what was happening. But now we will never be able to know the truth until a party which has had a big loss over an endorsement reveals the mask of the party with gains. So in our jungle a game is being played and even the journalists have taken sides. It’s time we understand our right — The right to information. At this age of Google, anyone can write and importantly they can be heard enough. So let’s shout for the revival of Journalism and this forum will ensure it is heard loud enough for its revival.
Journalism definitely is an art to be preserved and to save its dignity, “Let truth alone triumph”.
By Mithun, Of Mithun but for the people.