Click to play videoA pastor in Jaipur was attacked by a right wing group for preaching Christianity. Did the presence of cameras add fuel to the fire? Is the media guilty of fuelling intolerance?
Five people have been arrested in connection with the attack. The attack - allegedly by VHP, Bajrang Dal activists - took place on Sunday triggering off protests by student and Christian groups in Jaipur.
While more arrests are likely the police are also now looking into the media's role in possibly fuelling the attack.
Is the media playing into the hands of elements and groups who are setting a trend for religious intolerance? To try and answer the question was senior journalist Nalini Singh.
The first thing that Nalini Singh did was to strongly condemn the hooliganism that was being practised by these right wing groups. She said that she hoped nobody supported the kind of behaviour displayed by the people who attacked the missionary.
Secondly she went on to sarcastically demand how the media got the "wonderful" shots that it did - long shots, close ups. She also demanded to know why the cameramen and the reporters could not help save the pastor from being mercilessly battered by the hooligans?
She wanted to know whether this whole event was fixed, whether it was a drama enacted out in front of the cameras.
To the argument that a journalist can only report an incident and not be an active part of it, Nalini Singh said, "I absolutely disagree. Life first, story later. I will live with this saying."
She said that the media did not need to be congratulated by anyone for the wonderful work that it had been doing in the past - exposing fake encounters and political criminals - but now the media was taking on the role of 'situation news'.
"Situation news is much like sitcoms - situation comedies. Situation comedies were when one made funny scripts and created a few laughs. Now, the media is making situations where it is creating news. It's dangerous and the signal is going to the viewers that there is not much reality on reality television," she said in a disgusted tone.
She was suggesting that the media is perhaps sometimes a willing participant in such incidents and that these kind of news items are almost like watching a pseudo-reality television show.
Where does media draw the line?
The incident of the pastor being beaten in the full glare of television cameras is not an isolated one.
There was the incident in Meerut when the police beat up young couples in a park and which was caught on cameras. The result was that the officials responsible were identified and action was taken against them.
There have been other incidents where the presence of the media has actually averted such incidents from happening.
She said that the media needed to understand what was the difference between stories that actually warranted space on television versus stories that the media thought was news.
In a scathing attack on the media, Nalini Singh said demanded to know where the cameras were farmers in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, were committing suicide for a loan of merely Rs 16,000.
She said that such stories were perhaps being created by the media for the masses and not the classes. The media needed to introspect andn understand what actually is news and which are the stories that do not deserve space on television at all.
Is Indian news at a nascent stage?
Nalini Singh said that the Indian viewer would soon start understanding the difference between what's actually news and what is tabloid or yellow journalism.
However, this would happen only if enough was said and that if the media itself would raise contrary voices and question the kind of things that are being shown in the name of news on television.
There is perhaps a need to introspect on where to draw the line between what's news and perhaps being willing or unwilling participants in the making of news, she concluded.
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