Judiciary is one of the pillars of democracy within India’s constitutional framework. But the constitution’s founding fathers didn’t anticipate that trial by media conducted in television studios, as opposed to trial in courtrooms, would one day subvert privacy and defamation laws, particularly the presumption of innocence until pronounced guilty by a judge.
The illustrious founding fathers must be turning in their graves today because they couldn’t foresee the rise of trial by media in contravention of established laws, and hence, failed to lay down mechanisms to curb the menace.
The media monster has bared its fangs once again in the wake of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) controversy stoked by the shouting of slogans, which were branded “anti-national” by the BJP government. Six JNU students in their 20s have been charged with sedition. Significantly, countless Indians are dismissive of the whole affair; they believe slogans against death penalty, oppression of tribals and low castes, leasing of forests to multinational corporations and state repression are well within democratic rights.
Interestingly, the BJP-police case rests on a video showing masked figures shouting anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans! Although the video is clearly doctored, a collusive media is busy conducting trials on prime time TV to bolster the BJP-police claim based on morphed images. It would be unfair to accuse the entire media, though. But a section is running amok branding accused students “terrorists” or “traitors” on “Pakistan’s payroll”, while JNU is projected as a campus “squandering” taxpayers’ money on “unpatriotic” acts. The diabolical trial by media has culminated in the hashtag “Close JNU.” Misuse of press freedom can make anyone’s blood boil as utter lies tarnish reputations in TV studios day after day. The Indian Express has aptly described the obnoxious TV debates setting the tone of national discourse, a “hyper-nationalist blockbuster in which the overworked and overwrought anchor doubles as both prosecution and judge — scolding, smirking, shouting, pronouncing verdicts.”
Express also reproduced “verdicts” delivered by some anchors to expose the ongoing media trial.
l Sudhir Chaudhary (Zee News): “We won’t tolerate any insults toward India; traitors will not be spared.”
l Arnab Goswami (Times Now): Addressing Umar Khalid, he thundered: “You are more dangerous than Maoist terrorists. I wonder who is funding you to destroy the rich heritage of this country… What you are doing is anti-national… In this country there is a bunch of people, which includes secessionists, anti-nationals, champagne-sipping cocktail glitterati, five-star has-been authors… and some out-of-work lawyers, who say they are the free spirits of this country and come out with illiterate arguments.” Arnab turned on the students again. “Your agenda has been called out… I am only speaking to this misguided youth… They are a motley combination of anti-nationals, they have no ideology, they are opportunists of the highest level.”
l Deepak Chaurasia (India News): “I am first an Indian citizen and a patriot. Then I am a journalist. I’m no pseudo-patriot.”
Significantly, TV’s partisan role has triggered the resignation of Vishwa Deepak, a Zee News reporter, who left to register his “protest at the role played by Zee News in instigating and spreading the campaign of blind nationalism… Since 2014, there has been a communalization of newsrooms and the situation is particularly alarming in Zee News”.
It’s high time India’s judiciary stepped in to declare trial by media a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment and a hefty fine. The glaring loophole in the law must be plugged immediately.
