India is the largest democracy in the world, free for more than 76 years since 2023, this is one of our largest legacies till date. But the time has come for us to take a hard and realistic look at how democracy has been doing in India since it’s independence.
India currently is ranked 160th out of 180. Pretty low for the largest democracy in the world, isn’t it? In 2022 India was ranked 150th out of 180, the Indian media’s rank has plummeted in just 1 year and that’s something we SHOULD be concerned about, if not us, who will?
The current state of Indian media is a mere punchline which contributes to a bigger joke that I will talk about later. The rankings have been falling since 2016 which is very coincidental to a certain party’s uprising in our country. We are slowly nearing the bottom of the barrel in press freedom where countries like Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Myanmar are ranked. Still not raising concerns?
Indian citizens who are refugees in their own state is not prime time material for news channels. 60,000 people who were displaced out of their own country is not TRP worthy media for our glorious news channels. It took the Central government until a video of the 4th May attack showed up and that was the breaking point for our government to take action.
Why wasn’t this covered by our media and communal violence in Bengal and UP were given 24/7 live coverage. If this were sports, The communal violence in Bengal and UP is Cricket and the Manipur violence is Hockey, it simply doesn’t make enough money for the news outlets. It was only after the Prime minister spoke out on this issue did the media choose to cover the tragedy.
Simple, the media follows where our Prime minister goes, wherever he goes, there is money to be made with TRP, and this is not the journalist’s fault.
They themselves aren’t safe to speak out with courage. My own parents have expressed concern whenever I bring up topics like this saying “why are you poking your nose into these matters?” and i replied, “if i don’t, who will?”
Our government was growing insecure on the freedom enjoyed by the press in India until October 3, 2023, when the government cracked down on journalists across the country. Several of them were questioned on the stories and were asked why they covered these stories that showed India in a poor light. That poor light is our reality.
A country where it’s journalists are booked and detained, then asked why they show India in a poor light shows where our country stands on freedom today, while media outlets which glorify the government and it’s actions blindly are rewarded. This is similar to the countries that the world looks down upon and it’s disheartening. Journalism is a powerful tool which is now corrupted and is used as a propaganda by the Central government
This is just 1 of the 4 parts of this article, there is more to talk about, my dear friends.