EAGLES & HAWKS
- In
- 12:33 PM, Aug 04, 2016
- M P Sivasubramanian
The two pillars of democracy – the press and the legal fraternity – have been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. The two sections have been having ongoing fights in the various courts in Kerala. By fights I don’t mean the kind of legal fights fought inside the courts. These fights were fought in the premises of the court but not inside the buildings. They were fought on the grounds and spilled out to the streets. These fights were fought with hands, legs, slippers, sticks and even stones. Both sides claim to have suffered “severe” injuries. A few equipments used by the scribes have been damaged. A number of vehicles belonging to both sides have been damaged too. While both sides claim it is the other’s fault, it is the newsmen who seem to have an upper hand now purely due to the fact that they have monopolised the means to expose a story. The lawyers too are trying their best to say their side of the story through the now popular social media. Apparently the root cause of all this fight is the publication of a story about a government pleader molesting a woman on the streets. I am not going into the details of the story. What I wish to discuss here is the morality of both supposed pillars of our democracy.
Let me talk about journalists. There were times when journalists were usually mere reporters of news. They did factual reporting of news without giving any colour to the news. There were editors who did the job of writing opinions on various events or government policies. Most of the editors did a good job of giving an impartial opinion about things and were mouthpiece of the public. They criticized the rulers when required and helped in guiding them to the right path. We had many journalists whose views were highly regarded by politicians of all parties. News in those days also was limited to very important happenings in the national media and important local events in the regional media. The ways to get news and publish them were limited. That way news got filtered and only the really important ones found their way to the public.
Today the situation is totally different. There are more news channels than entertainment channels. There are the national channels in English & Hindi and an equal number of regional channels in regional languages in any particular state of the country. We all know that viewership brings ads and ads bring money and hence the mad rush to get the latest news, however insignificant they are. This results in even the smallest of events getting publicity in a very short period. As human nature goes it is the bad news that is more watched than the good ones. And bad news begets bad reaction which spreads as fast as the news spreads. As a result of media making a mad rush after every small bit of news, even the smallest bit gets blown out of proportion. Consequently, the public reaction to news also is more widespread and more harmful to the society as a whole.
As media proves to be an influential tool, more and more political parties and religious organizations are using it to spread their hold over the public. This has resulted in political parties owning media houses and colouring news with their views. Impartial journalists are a scarce commodity nowadays. They are under pressure to spread the ideas and opinions of their owners who are mainly political parties or religious organizations. This is not just true for regional media houses but also for the major national press. The tiniest bit of news is given an angle most favourable to a party or religion, through their media houses and forced upon the general public. As people get emotional about their religions and political allegiance, every news today results in fights between people of two sides and the media houses are happy to get more fodder for their hungry cameras, microphones and pens.
It is quite well known that the general public, most of who are uneducated can be expected to behave reasonably and with restraint. The members of the fourth estate, who are more educated and world-wise should act in a manner as to maintain peace in the society.
Coming to the other pillar of our society, the legal system, not much can be said in praise of them too. They are not angels either. Lawyers, by virtue of their profession, cannot be impartial. Their job is to take a side and convince an impartial (?) judge to rule in their favour. Lawyers are traditionally known to take the side of the wrong-doer in a hurry to become richer. Many “successful” lawyers have earned their name arguing in favour of the worst criminals on earth. But then they never take the moral high-ground that journalists are often seen to take. There are probably more damaging jokes about lawyers than about blondes or Sikhs. They have the excuse of being professional when they side a criminal against a victim. Even those who have graduated to become judges don’t seem to have lost their partiality as can be seen in various cases nowadays. Their profession certainly is no excuse to side with the wrong and thus encourage more wrong-doers to commit crimes without any fear of punishment. There are certain rights and wrongs in human society that are not put down in law books. These have to be followed and failure in doing so will make the life of everyone difficult.
Till a few years ago lawyers fought only inside the court houses. Nowadays they seem to be taking the fight to the streets. This only shows how the standards of our so-called educated people have come down to.
Whatever the reasons – money, fame or power – it is sad to see the two sections, who are supposed to uphold and fight for justice, stoop down to such levels. They may blame it on political or other pressures. But then our country has had and still has examples of people who have withstood all kinds of pressures to stay on the right path.
Comments