One hardly expects to hear a Friends reference dropped while discussing Indian politics but then Faye D’Souza is a journalist who knows exactly what works with the audience.
An enlightening discussion on the state of the media titled MediaFile: Fact, Fiction and the Spaces in Between saw Ruben Banerjee (Editor-in-Chief: Outlook), Sonia Singh (Editorial Director: NDTV) and independent journalist Taran N Khan in conversation with Faye D’Souza.
We saw a host of topics being broached including fake news, govt interference in journalism, ownership models and much more.
The debate started with all participants contesting the topic stating that there ought to be no fiction in journalism.
‘Pressure has always existed’
Discussing the pressure of business models or owners, Outlook’s Editor-in-Chief Ruben Banerjee noted that there were good or bad owners and that pressure had always existed in journalism, more so now because we live in a divisive society.
He lamented the politicisation of newsrooms and said that journalists were using the tone once used by politicians. He noted that the it wasn’t just journalism and that every institution, including the fourth estate was in the decline.
‘Fake news has been weaponised’
NDTV’s Sonia Singh noted that it wasn’t just fiction, and that fake news had been weaponised. She stated that there existed a concerted effort to tell lies, not just by the media but by those holding the highest offices in government.
She said: “They are putting out a lie and repeating it a thousand times. We saw it happen in the Emergency.”
She stated that she was lucky to work in a company where the owners faced prospects of going to jail but still never asked reporters to compromise on their reporting. Her mention of popular anchor Ravish Kumar drew huge cheers from the audience.
She added that despite the bluster, no one actually had a count on the number of illegal immigrants in the country, and in Uttar Pradesh in the last five years, there had only been 209 complains. On the other hand, the NRC in Assam cost Rs 1,600 crore.
‘Fake news’
Noting how ‘fake news’ permeated from the very top of the pyramid, Faye D’Souza stated that Modi had said there were ‘no detention centres’ despite the fact that were centres, noting that there existed an entire social media structure to amplify the lie.
Adding to the point, Sonia Singh stated that the Home Minister had mentioned NRC at least eight times, and there were enough reports to substantiate the existence of detention centres in Assam, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Expounding further upon the proliferation of fake news, Sonia Singh noted how slums allegedly housing Bangladeshis were razed in Benglauru, even though it turned out the residents were all Indians.
Sonia noted how she frequently received factually incorrect WhatsApp forwards which often caused discomfiture among her friends and family members.
Poha Woes
Speaking about Vijayvargiya’s recent poha comment, Faye stated the dangers of creating an ‘us vs them’, stating: “Who is us and who is them? If you break up with BJP, you are them. Like the Sena-BJP alliance. Shiv Sena and BJP are like the Ross and Rachel of Indian politics. Are they on a break?”
Speaking against the doom and gloom, Ruben Banerjee believed that the key for journalism was to go back to the bases and realise it wasn’t just about the BJP.
He noted: “We need to go back to the bases. We’ve not been uniform. It’s not just BJP. There were police abuses in Bengal, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. We are being selective in our outrage.”
Sonia Singh lamented the targeting of individuals like Kanhaiya Kumar and Aishe Ghosh, particularly the fake news that follows the individuals. For example, many had claimed that Aishe Ghosh was wearing plasters on different hands or that her stitches had vanished.
Ruben Banerjee added he found at times that the ‘pro-CAA protests’ were being ignored and he was surprised to find after moving to Delhi that instead of covering BJP and Congress, there were journalists who were on the parties’ payrolls.
Finally, Faye D’Souza – former Managing Editor of Mirror Now – asked the audience to stop watching news channels even as a source of entertainment, urging people to watch Netflix instead!
