PROTECT THE MESSENGER

Journalism is being reduced to a facade. The process might have started a long while ago when big money entered the field through television channels, but it has rapidly escalated to whittle down the fourth pillar with threats, intimidation, and arrests, and violence. While there are the favoured few who viewers can see ranting on prime shows every evening, there is this vast majority of journalists who are finding everyday struggle, Hundreds, indeed thousands, have lost their jobs as corporate owners of media houses seek to cut losses every now and again - with the axe of course falling on those who cherish independent journalism. This again is not so new, as television owners were known to sack hundreds of employees at one go every time the media house changed hands. But it has increased with levels of impunity that contribute to making the abnormal, the normal.

Journalists in Delhi barely exist, in that they are denied access to Parliament House, Central Hall, Ministries, with even the press information bureau accreditation weaponised to favour just the few. The first flavour of the last was felt under the Congress government, but the ruling party today knows how to tighten the screws beyond escape. Favourites are accommodated in government press committees, while independent organisations are rebuffed and dismissed. In the process sycophancy is lauded, and independence targeted.

Governments do not like messengers. That is a given. Under every regime independent journalists have felt the pressure and as pointed out in these columns earlier, have been virtually blacklisted even by so-called democratic governments. Of course the intimidation has not been so extensive but when one government makes and legitimises a beginning, the next is able to fast forward the oppression. To a point where fear controls the media, and corporate owners through their editors ensure that no independent scribe remains in their employ, lest he or she queer the pitch.

So it should not have been a surprise, but yet it was, when Himachal Pradesh brought in an order directing journalists to submit character certificates to be able to cover the Prime Minister's meeting. This created an immediate storm of protest, from local scribes but across the country, and the order was withdrawn by a top police official with an "inconvenience is regretted." Given the over centralisation of administrative functioning, journalists cannot be blamed for speculating that this was a directive from Delhi to 'test the waters' as it were, and that the spontaneous protest has shelved it but not for long. As senior journalists have pointed out in articles and discussions over these days, this order has flagged the next step where scribes will be further filtered through the character certification path. Clearly this will be issued by the administration on the basis of police and intelligence reports, and as all journalists know these can be customised effectively.

The government is making a mistake in trying to control the media, as in the process the few with loudspeakers have lost credibility. The Indian voters, regardless of who they vote for, have always been used to a relatively free media and the utter sycophancy on display does not make for credible news. All and sundry are attacking the journalists for fake news, for manipulation and exaggeration. As a result, news channels and newspapers are losing their reach, and the younger people under 35 generation prefers to get its views and news from social media. This might be seen by those who run Delhi as 'good' because it allows the whatsapp and twitter industry to dominate, but in the long term this will create discord and instability. As fake news, and lies can only shake the system, and make democracy teeter as the masses react and respond to projected shadows. Even those in power will cease to know the lie from the truth, in that the feedback from the streets will be extinct. The consequences cannot be polarised or placed in selective compartments, it will impact on India as a whole.