2018: the highs and lows in journalism

No incident captured both the crest and trough of Indian journalism in 2018 better than what transpired at ABP News in July and August this year. In a video interaction with the Prime Minister in June, a participant called Chandramani Kaushik from Chhattisgarh claimed that her income had doubled thanks to a government scheme.

Upon interviewing Kaushik, an ABP reporter revealed that this wasn’t true and that Kaushik has been coached by officials in Delhi to make the claim. When this report was broadcast on July 6 on the channel, several government ministers took to Twitter and blamed the channel for maligning PM Modi. When ABP News sent the reporter to interview Kaushik once again, he confirmed the findings of the first one: Kaushik’s income hadn’t doubled.

What followed the intrepid reportage was a craven submission by the channel’s management to the current dispensation. “We have heard there was huge pressure on the management by those from the ruling party [BJP] to change its stance,” confirmed an ABP insider. ABP channels faced signal disruptions, possibly a result of rogue carriers. In the first week of August came the resignations: journalist Punya Prasun Bajpai, managing editor Milind Khandekar, and executive producer Nikhil Kumar Dubey quit the channel.

What unfolded at ABP rattled many in the profession, but was not reported on by the mainstream media. Much like the Cobrapost sting that exposed the rot in the fourth estate.

Political polarisation has borne journalistic polarisation in the recent years, producing the good, bad, and the ugly in Indian journalism. To make an assessment of how well 2018 fared, we reached out to a few journalists and news professionals and asked them these three questions:

– What, according to you, was the lowest point for Indian journalism in 2018?

– What, according to you, was the highest point for Indian journalism in 2018?

– What would you hope Indian journalism gets right in 2019?

Not everyone we contacted was too eager to comment—those who did offer a rich recap of the year that went by.

Dilip C Mandal, journalist and former managing editor, India Today Hindi

The high point is that the tent is now bigger. There are many more news platforms and thus more diversity.

Large number of ordinary citizens are disseminating news and information. The system of gatekeepers is now vanishing, and if somebody wants to say something, even the Prime Minister, they’ll say it on Twitter. Factors like the proliferation of smartphones and technologies like Jio might have played a role in ushering this new era of journalism where videos are reaching a large number of people.

The low point was the gap between the masses and mainstream journalism, especially legacy newspapers, channels and websites. The best example of this is the Bharat Bandh of April 2 this year, where the mainstream media failed to understand the anger among the Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes and the lower castes of India.

A Bharat Bandh occured in this country after two or three decades, and not a single column mentioned that there was something so big brewing up at the social level. When it suddenly burst out, they reported it as violence. They didn’t even try to scratch the surface and see what is happening at the ground, and this is because the social groups are not represented in mainstream media newsrooms.

My hope for 2019 is journalism by ordinary masses—putting pressure on mainstream media to be more inclusive. I don’t know how this will change the shape of Indian journalism, but that pressure is there and we can sense it. This will bring contrarian and diverse views that’ll allow for contestation at the level of ideas and ideology.

Josy Joseph, independent journalist

The low point of Indian journalism in 2018 was the abject neglect of mainstream media of the Rafale controversy, and other decisions of the central government which were suspect. Except for very few marginal stories, the mainstream—including those media houses who fancy themselves as moral marshals against corruption and masters of reporting—had no original contribution from any one of them in improving the democracy, bettering merit and in holding those in power accountable.

Rafale was the lowest point. It is a classic scandal, despite what the Supreme Court may have said—crony capitalism written all over, scuttled military modernisation, a company with no experience, a plutocrat in deep debt, and a government that is secretive and led by just one man dismissing a decade old process.

The high point was the courage shown by smaller media houses to fill the vacuum left by the mainstream media houses. They were relentless in their effort to take on the establishment, especially in the coverage of Justice Loya murder, Rafale, businesses of Amit Shah’s family, etc. Maybe we’re witnessing the rise of a new mainstream media.

I hope Indian journalists show the courage to revolt within corporate media houses in 2019, to walk out if necessary from their safe jobs, to show the media barons and rest of society that journalism as a craft in this country is still held up on strong values. On an immediate note, this is a crucial year for India because of the general elections. I hope the mainstream media do not continue to play the part of jingoistic propagandists and get back to doing journalism.

Raju Narisetti, professor of professional practice, Columbia University – Graduate School of Journalism

The low point was the continuing lack of coverage in India’s mainstream media—newspapers, in particular—of most news events related to India’s media, from forced exits of editors and journalists in news organisations and changes inside media family ownership, to defamation lawsuits and specific #MeToo examples and continuing pay-for-coverage scandals.

This deepening Indian Omerta across media is a key reason why declining trust in media is getting reinforced from within the newsrooms itself, and is the Achilles Heel of Indian journalism that allows outsiders, especially governments and businesses, to divide and conquer all.

The high point would be the survival and growth of The Wire, Scroll, Firstpost, The News Minute, The Ken, Factor Daily and other digital news brands where a multiplicity of staff voices, outside opinions and news prisms are still available for audiences looking for kernels of truth, and a questioning spirit that is vitally needed in scale as an antidote to most mainstream journalism.

Hope for 2019: The realisation that if you live by the government—for access, influence, revenue or just largesse—you could also die by the government. The realisation that there is power in collaboration and the more “self regulation and governance” sham you pull, the easier it gets for outsiders to manipulate your journalism and your business of journalism. And the realisation that to be critical of many things Indian in journalism is not being negative of India. As a nation, India won’t get better at what it does unless we cast a critical eye on how we do what we do.

And that Priya Ramani, and all the women who bravely spoke up after her, are entirely vindicated as they fully deserve to be, and their legal costs are ordered to be reimbursed by MJ Akbar.

Neha Dixit, independent journalist

The low point was not covering farmers’s march, police encounters in UP and #Metoo in the Indian media. The high point was so many women journalists speaking up on sexual harassment, assault and sexism in the Indian newsrooms

Hope for 2019: More ground report and in-depth investigative pieces and less of opinion journalism

Sunetra Choudhary, political editor, NDTV

There were a few low points this year but I think a story that saw shameful coverage from June till the end of the year was the crackdown on activists. Here were a set of police claims against some of the best minds in the country like Sudha Bhardwaj. And yet, there were many sections of the media who didn’t question the charges at all, didn’t ask any tough questions.

The other big failure for indian journalism has been the spread of fake news. The fact that people are being lynched because of the spread of fake news is perhaps something we are not tackling hard enough.

The high point was the coverage of the Kerala floods and even farmers. The fact that a community ravaged by a natural disaster was happy about our constructive role is a big win for Indian media.

Hope for 2019: I hope it has less drama. Real life is dramatic enough and all we have to do is tell it truthfully.

Snigdha Poonam, national affairs writer, Hindustan Times

The lows: the flood of accusations of sexual misbehavior, harassment and assault against male journalists, past and present, revealed the depths of power inequality between men and women in Indian media. Even more alarming have been the responses to the media’s #MeToo moment, swinging between denial and victimhood. The answer can’t be to hire fewer women or to police interactions at workplace. Media organisations have a lot to think about in #MeToo’s wake. They could begin by listening to women in their workforce.

The highs: I don’t think there is any one point in any year that holds up my faith in the future of Indian journalism. No one can deny the decline of impartial and investigative journalism, yet every single day I am amazed by the efforts colleagues across organisations make to uncover truth and challenge the establishment. Many of these happen to be women and some of them work independently. The journalism that stood for me in 2018 included Neha Dixit’s report in The Wire exposing the Uttar Pradesh police’s encounter killing of poor Muslims, Ashwaq Masoodi’s report on the multiple lives ravaged by the government’s imprisoning of people for unflattering social media posts, and Anumeha Yadav’s consistent reporting on the lives of farmers, mine workers and adivasis.

Hope for 2019: Fewer quotes from politicians and more from ordinary people.

Pradip Phanjoubam, editor, Imphal Free Press

The lowest point 2018, without doubt, would be the heart of darkness within the Indian media that Operation 136 of Cobrapost revealed. Equally depressing was the seeming lack of concern of the larger public at what was revealed by this expose.

The highest point of 2018 for me is the continuing growth in strength, number and credibility of digital journals, attracting talented journalists new and old, and how this is beginning to flatten the playing field, promising the fall, or at least a check on the current information monopoly by giant media corporations.

In 2019, I look forward to the new digital medium finding a stable and sustainable revenue model. I also wish for the arrival of suitable regulatory mechanisms to moderate it and make the new freedom it is ushering in safe for all.

Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, executive editor, Kashmir Times

It’s difficult to pinpoint any one thing in 2018 which has been disastrous for free media. Top journalists being forced to resign from channels and print media for criticising the Modi government, persecution including arrests and murders of journalists such as Shujaat Bukhari in Kashmir.

In the midst of all this, attempts by some professionals to uphold journalistic ethics is worth mentioning as a high. The critique of the government in the finalisation of the Rafale deal, farmers issues particularly by The Wire and NDTV.

My hopes for 2019 are good professional organisations that can take up issues of journalists to protect their rights to fairly report and of newspapers and channels facing various forms of persecution.

Malini Subramaniam, independent journalist

The Bombay High Court striking down the CBI court’s order gagging media from reporting on the proceedings in the Sohrabuddin encounter case early this year was a good note to start. It set path-breaking precedence in enabling media to report on similar cases in which influential persons are involved.

Justice Revati Mohit-Dere while passing this order had observed that “freedom of press is intrinsic to the right to freedom of expression”. Given the innumerable cases of extrajudicial killings that will be flooding courts, this is a judgement that will be referred to a lot as journalists line up to report. Thanks to the seven journalists who successfully petitioned the case.

The lows: The tragic death of Doordarshan video journalist Achyuta Sahu in October this year in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district brings some compelling lessons to many—to the police to not make media personnel their sacrificial goat to showcase their work, to the Maoists to train their cadres to abandon ambush if they even get a glimpse of media personnel and least of all not take away cameras!

And last but not least, to journalists to not piggyback on the police or even Maoists to cover news, or at the least check with local journalists the precautions to be taken. As many of us were reeling under shock of the journalist’s death and arguing how this could have been avoided, I was shocked to watch about a week later a programme on India Today TV‘s Jab We Met—a staged documentary on Bastar. For this to have come about a week after Sahu’s death was even more appalling. What was Rahul Kanwal doing … fooling himself or the audience?

As regards 2019, I do hope the Congress learns from the mistakes the BJP made. The BJP’s resounding defeat in Chhattisgarh is people’s response to Raman Singh government’s failed attempt at burnishing his dull achievements and the media gag he imposed, hoping to turn the lies into truth.  The media in Bastar faced the worst as false cases were randomly slapped against journalists, arrests of journalists with trumped up charges, or journalists being driven out of the place. All this to keep the government’s utter failure in tackling Naxalism away from the public by gagging the media.

The people’s mandate to the Congress by bringing them back after 15 years is in the hope that they do not make the mistakes the BJP so blatantly committed. As a media person, I not only hope Bastar is no more a black hole from where news fails to come out, but also that the current dispensation throws open to scrutiny all the grime the previous government tried to keep away from scrutinising media so as to keep its own false narrative  before public, And that this remains so in the coming five years of its ruling. The journalists in Bastar are hopeful of the protection law, the Congress has promised. This too will be closely watched.