Today, May 3, marks the World Press Freedom Day of 2022. In various aspects, journalism is at a critical point in this decade. Journalists have been facing privacy violations, threatening messages, cyberbullying, suppression of freedom of speech-expression and other security concerns while reporting on a news story.
Keeping all this in mind, I spoke with Pooja Prasanna, Editorial Head, Reporting, The News Minute. She is an experienced women journalist who has worked with mainstream media organizations like Republic Network and Times Now and is currently with the independent media organization, The News Minute.
Sofia Babu Chacko (SBC): While talking about working women, a repeatedly asked question by society is: How do you manage your family and profession together especially when you are a journalist?
Do you ever face such a question? How do you react to that?
Pooja Prasanna (PP): The question itself shows the bias people hold against women. By asking such a question, they are implying that women are perhaps supposed to take care of household responsibilities more than men. People need to stop asking this question. This is an issue faced by all professionals. However, I don’t think that male journalists are asked by society with the same concern. According to some people, this question is only meant for women.
SBC: Do our Indian newsrooms discriminate against women in terms of salary and wage distribution?
PP: Wage disparity is still an existing problem in some mainstream media organizations. But this is changing. For example, independent media organisations like The News Minute ensure pay parity. Ours is a women-centric newsroom. We have more women working in the newsroom. Legacy media is still behind in this. Very few Editors-in-Chief or decision-makers are women.
The other thing is men are primarily seen as the breadwinners so they have the sole responsibility to take care of the family financially. In this case, the patriarchal society believes that the women’s salary is just a supplement to the family’s needs. So they think that it is okay if she gets paid less than her male colleague. I have seen this workplace attitude. But this is changing now.
SBC: From these years of Journalism experience, have you ever come across cyber abuses? What do you want to tell women journalists about these online crimes?
PP: Most of the women in social media, particularly women journalists have been facing this online abuse. The reality is that Muslim women journalists are facing more abuses over the last two to three years. I had to update my Twitter account to private on one or two occasions. We use Twitter on a day-to-day basis, saying what we have to. So these online threats build a toxic environment.
It is an occupational hazard. We can not run away from a microblogging platform like Twitter. But whenever I open Twitter, I can see an endless number of abusive content against women. In this worsening situation, it is the responsibility of social media giants like Facebook and Twitter to remove all objectionable content. In my case, I had to report to Twitter directly against the objectionable content.
SBC: We have a lot of journalism institutes in India. Our syllabus is more theoretical and less practical. There is a need to educate media students about the consequences of a news story. How does it impact the public and their lives? Would it be fair if we ask for an urgent rewriting of the entire syllabus? What do you feel?
PP: Definitely. The journalism schools in our country are teaching students terms like ‘objectivity’, and ‘neutrality’ without actually explaining what they mean in practice. In terms of objectivity, when we start working, most journalists have no idea how the concept is put into reality.
These are the challenges that every journalist faces daily. Our journalism institutes never teach this. We need to come up with a syllabus that has more practicals than simple theories. We need a combination of academicians and professionals to teach the students how to face the dilemma of choosing between what you believe in and what your organisation wants, or deciding what is ethical, and objective while on the field.
SBC: You have gone for a ground reporting in Sabarimala during the time of women’s entry verdict. But you couldn’t enter the premises. You are a woman. Do you think that male journalists have this “privilege” more than women media professionals?
PP: Women do have to face a lot of issues because of their gender. That is what happened in Sabarimala. I don’t want to say that my male colleagues have got more privileges in this case. I was merely reporting on the issue of women’s entry and was not trying to enter Sabarimala. But I was targeted only because I was a woman reporter, as were several of my colleagues from other news organisations.
I think almost every time we step out to the field for reporting, we face this issue. These all are the part of prejudices and biases we face every day.
SBC: Tell us about the scope of digital newsgathering. How credible, factual and accurate is it? What are the limitations of digital news gathering apart from ground reporting?
PP: People still prefer a face-to-face interaction that is a bit challenging in digital newsgathering. We still insist that our reporters go out and meet the sources in person and gather information as much as they can. The pulse is missing in most of the cases when we carry out digital newsgathering. Usually, after the press conference is held, there would have an informal interaction with the subject. This is not possible when you are reporting online. Sometimes, we miss the mood which could be electrifying or tense and we even miss out on all those elements of emotions.
SBC: Is workplace harassment still a matter of concern for women journalists?
PP: Of course, it is a big concern. There should be an internal committee to address the sexual harassment against women. Most organizations have this internal committee for the sake of Vishakha committee guidelines but how does it work? That part is questionable. We have to go a long way to ensure women feel safe to work.
It is a big concern, the predators are roaming around outside, and they are enjoying the support of powerful people and the government. It is very disheartening to see them get away with no consequences. I think that is why most women don’t come out to speak. We should continue our work to make the workplace safer.
Your workplace is not just your newsroom, it’s the entire world. This is a very difficult problem we have to tackle. It is not limited to making a workplace safe but making society safer because my job takes me everywhere. I need all of those places to be safer for me. It is the male privilege that men have, making it tougher for women to come out and speak. We have laws, the issue is in implementing them properly. How many women will go and complain in a police station against the abuser? Sometimes social stigma stops them. We should realize that there is no shame in filing a case. If abuse happened, the predator should be ashamed not the survivor.
SBC: Some would say that women are more capable of handling feature type soft news rather than hard political crime news. But times have changed. Many women, including you, are covering beats like politics, crime, and socially relevant issues. But these stereotypes are visible. What would you say about it?
PP: It is changing. There was a time when our newsrooms believed that input, output, Editor-in-Chief everybody should be a man. However, today, we do see some women Editors-in-Chief. Today, women are covering politics and crime beats. I think in regional media, only a few women are covering the political beats though. There is a misconception that politics is only understandable to men not to women. Just look at our debate panels. We can see men sitting in the panel and we hardly see women discussing women related issues.
It is true that we have a very less number of Dalits in newsrooms, especially in mainstream media houses. ‘Upper caste’ people are dominating the news world. It is a fact that newsrooms are not all-inclusive. We are losing diversity. The News Minute strives towards involving people from all diversities. We need opinions. We need all the people from these communities as decision-makers. It is an absolute shame that we are excluding the diverse voice.
SBC: Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have shifted from a work-from-office culture to a work-from-home work system. How does this affect the newsroom’s functioning and reporting?
PP: It is not possible to afford for a reporter to work from home beyond a point of time. We need a balanced culture between working from home and working from the office.
SBC: After work, we have to spend time on our own mental health. Maybe you are stressed on that day. Do women journalists suffer from mental health issues because of their professional pressure? How can we overcome this?
PP: This is a very difficult situation most journalists face. Many young journalists are giving up the profession because they say that “we can’t sustain here”. We are going out and reporting the trauma people are facing with their tragedies. You can’t say that I am done with it and I will report on something else which is nicer. The stories have to be told.
I know a lot of journalists who are covering stories on communal violence. Somehow we feel mentally exhausted on many occasions but you cannot say that you can’t report it. All I want to say to the news organizations is that journalists are human beings. You have to be accommodative. You should give them breaks. We have to offer them counselling sessions. We all are humans, we need psychological as well as mental support.
We are at a very critical juncture, witnessing the clampdown of freedom of speech which is not acceptable at any point. There are independent news organizations which are trying to bring out the truth. At this point, you have to understand and recognise the importance of a free press in India and do your bit to support it in whichever way you can.