The following is sourced from social media and attributed to R Rajagopal, editor-at-large, The Telegraph.
THE REPORT ON RAHUL GANDHI THAT MANY GILDED EDITORS DID NOT WRITE LAST NIGHT
The Editors Guild of India on Saturday evening issued one of the most important statements in recent memory although the print-media coverage that I saw today does not reflect the real import of the appeal to Rahul Gandhi for the Leader of Opposition’s support to raise in Parliament “pressing issues” of media freedom. Several newspapers have rightly reproduced the statement.
My respect went up exponentially for the equanimous self-control and almost ascetic existence of Indian newsrooms. My head spinning, I am still wondering how editors, bureau chiefs, reporters and desks have resisted the temptation to sink their teeth into one of the juiciest media statements I have seen in over three decades.
What if a team of journalists that I trained had done the same story? Here goes my imaginary report (with input gaps in brackets that my imaginary reporters can fill.) The Guild wrote to over 10 Opposition leaders, not just Rahul Gandhi. Which is all the more better. A responsible section of media accepting that the Opposition matters. The list of Guild members mentioned below is sourced from the Guild website. Some members I have mentioned may no longer be actively associated with the Guild or may have resigned from the Guild.
STOP PRESS! EDITORS HAVE DISCOVERED ‘DEAR SHRI GANDHI’
New Delhi: Kaun Rahul?
Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Kaun Rahul?
The very same Rahul Gandhi who was just now requested by the Editors Guild of India to raise in Parliament “pressing issues” of media freedom. The Guild drew the attention of the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to its “concerns” on legislative measures taken to control print, broadcast and digital media over the “past few years”.
The very same Rahul Gandhi who was ignored initially, then misrepresented, taunted, parodied, ridiculed, lampooned and viciously attacked by most of the media relentlessly in the past decade, redefining journalism that was once supposed to be the principal opposition, not the opposition-baiter.
The very same Rahul Gandhi, who was described by a section of the media as “impatient, inattentive, inconsistent… and great at procrastinating” — all on the basis of an anonymous quote. In fact, since the Bharat Jodo Yatra first round, Rahul has been steering clear of the so-called mainstream media. But, unlike the Prime Minister, Rahul does address media conferences.
The letter to the Opposition leader, made public by the Guild on Saturday evening, not only served up a mouthful of crow to a large section of the broadcast and print media but also marked an extraordinary moment in public life in the country where large sections of the media have firmly arrayed themselves with the Narendra Modi government since 2014.
The Guild’s letter to Rahul Gandhi said: “These provisions (enacted in recent years) give sweeping powers to a wide array of government authorities and agencies to take actions that can have potential chilling effect on journalism and press freedom due to increased government control and punitive measures. There are inadequate safeguards for press independence and freedom of expression.”
The Guild is raising grave concerns about the Digital Personal Protection Act, 2023; the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2023; the Press and Registration of Periodicals Act, 2023; and IT Rules 2021, and subsequent amendments in 2023.
A few weeks ago, one of the most telling episodes on the state of most of the Indian media had unfolded itself before the country when a group of interviewers guffawed mid-May in the middle of the general election. The mirth was occasioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poker-faced wisecrack when he was asked about the Congress leader’s focus on the rich-poor divide: “Kaun Rahul?”
The interviewers’ laughter that exploded in response to Modi’s question was described as “ugly” and “shameful” by a veteran journalist. “The Prime Minister can make such a political jibe, which is expected in an election. But can those who laughed like that be called journalists? Nothing is more shameful,” (actual quote by a veteran journalist who spoke to me just the other day.)
The Lok Sabha election had also showed how skewed media coverage was for Modi and Rahul. Using an analytics tool to assess 87 diverse India-based news websites in India, BBC Monitoring found that Modi appeared in over 27,121 items and Rahul Gandhi in 13,606. Even after the Lok Sabha elections that denied the BJP a majority of its own, the coverage bias has continued: the Congress said Modi was shown 12 times more than Rahul on TV during the President’s address.
It was against this backdrop that several senior editors of India, who are members of the Guild, have discovered Rahul Gandhi. Among the members of the Guild, whose stated objectives include “raising the standards of editorial leadership of newspapers and magazines”, are such illustrious editors as Arnab Goswami and Navika Kumar.
(Quote from Goswami on his response to the Guild seeking Rahul’s support.
(Quote from Kumar on her response to the Guild seeking Rahul’s support.)
The Guild’s statement does not mention whether the letter is their first to Rahul Gandhi or a leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. On Saturday, the Guild wrote to Rahul not as a Congress leader but because he is the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha — an unstated testimony to what has changed in India after the general election result.
It was not clear if the Guild would call upon its members to reactivate a tactic employed by journalists when the infamous anti-defamation bill was passed during the Rajiv Gandhi era. The Indian Express has quoted journalist Prabhu Chawla as writing that reporters then would start press conferences of Union ministers with a question seeking his or her opinion on the bill. If the minister evaded the question, all other journalists would walk out.
Although the current Prime Minister would be shielded from any such protest because he does not address media conferences. But the other ministers do.
(Quote from Guild office-bearer if it is planning any such protest.)
The contents of the Guild letter — especially its assertion that the freedom of the press is “a cornerstone of our democracy — bring into sharp focus statements made in the presence of the Prime Minister during a media group’s conclave in the run-up to the elections.
At the India Today Conclave, the Prime Minister said: “Aayega toh…” The audience, which included the group’s journalists, chorused obediently: “Modi hi.” Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie and his daughter Kalli Purie beamed with pride.
Kalli Purie, vice-chairperson and executive editor-in-chief of the media group, later said: “The media cannot play the role of the Opposition; expecting it to do that leads to unfair charges of Godi or Modi media. If the Opposition is in disarray, the media cannot be blamed for it. We cannot present on otherside equally, strongly if doesn’t exist. We are observers in this boxing match, we are not players. If one side is weak or doesn’t show up, we cannot jump into the ring. This is not fear. This is a matter of rules, roles and competence. We are the medium, we are not the message.”
Poetic justice. Ms Purie won’t have media playing the role of the Opposition but the power of democracy had ensured that the Opposition can now do what most of the media largely did not do in the past 10 years: hold the government accountable.
(Quote from Aroon Purie, who is listed as a member of the Guild, on the Guild seeking the Opposition’s help.)
Unwittingly or otherwise, the Guild’s letter shines a light on what most of the media had not been doing or had been doing in the past decade.
The letter says: “The Act (Digital Personal Data Protection Act) does not provide specific exemptions for processing personal data for journalistic purposes, contrary to previous iterations and international norms. This poses a severe impediment to basic journalistic functions such as research, investigation and publishing.”
The stress on “research, investigation and publishing” stirs the question whether the Indian media — barring the digital media and a handful of newspapers — have employed any of these basic requirements in recent memory. Again, other than the digital media and The Indian Express and The Hindu, few did their own stories with value edition after the goldmine of electoral bonds data were made public.
In the recently concluded election, the only media-offered hitherto-unknown insight the audience gained is a revelation that Modi is “non-biological”.
(Quote from any member of the Guild, on how much research, investigation and publishing was occasioned by the disclosure.)
The legislative hurdles are largely seen as targeting the digital media space, which has filled a vacuum left behind by the legacy media. The Modi government does not need any new legislative muscle to rein in large sections of the self-styled mainstream media. A former editor, who is also a member of the Guild, had tweeted about a minister who operated as the “bureau chief” who “set the agenda for the day’s press coverage, courting and cultivating New Delhi’s journalists”. On most days, the former editor wrote, the journalists met the minister, “taking orders and buying spins”.
The minister is no more but the purported daily ritual has been taken up by others.
If Rahul raises in Parliament media freedom, it will be interesting to see how many senior editors in the Guild would be counting the number of times the leader of Opposition is shown on TV fighting for “a cornerstone of our democracy”.
