All voices are equal, but some voices have become more equal than others. And whoever holds the power, holds the voice.
(Adapted from Orwell’s Animal Farm)
Well, it’s true, isn’t it? The face of media has changed over the last few decades, and its founding pillars are rusting faster than ever.
While media plays a pivotal role in community development, it has been transforming itself into communal and partisan symbols of hate and propaganda. With a gigantic leap in the number of historic protests and activism against bigoted and hateful policies by the BJP, their strategy of victimism has swayed the masses and created massive divides with regard to thoughts, opinions and prejudices.
The communal war perpetuated by Right-wing media conglomerates against the Muslims, following the induction of Kashmir into India, the CAA-NRC and the Tablighi Jamaat after the the BJP’s second sweeping chance at majority in the Lok Sabha Elections, shows how the Modi government has begun to capitalize on the conflict.
Consequently there are efforts made to reframe India’s protest movement from one as Indian citizens challenging the government to being a battle between the Muslims and the Hindus. Journalists are at crossroads between covering the truth and tarnishing their own reputation.
Giving voice to the voiceless is sometimes more a cliché than an ethical cornerstone of journalism, and the voiceless are growing in number. Good journalists around the world have always figured out that the best stories are those that aren’t being told. For those without the means to be heard, journalists must become powerful and eloquent voices.
If we do not wake up to the clear and present danger that hate poses to peace, India may very well walk into the footsteps of the Rwanda (1994 genocide). Given the country’s size and complexities, it would be nothing short of a global nightmare. Hate is a far more virulent and potent virus than COVID-19 and all the rest of them put together.
As Rajdeep Sardesai encapsulated the last decade in words, “a period when noise replaced news, chaos scored over credibility“, this becomes a facet of news reporting when profit takes over professionalism.