Why is Indian news media servile?

Must all media align itself to the govt? Is there a news market for Indians who didn’t vote for the ruling party?

Here are a few puzzling things about the state of Indian news media. Going by the Election Commission of India data, of the 553 million-odd Indians who voted in the 2014 general election, 31 per cent voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party or the BJP which runs the government at the Centre currently. But if you switched on news television it would seem as if there is no voice except that of BJP voters. While many of the larger national newspapers are a bit better, they have taken to hiding any news critical of the government in the inner pages. Any talk of economic slowdown, inadequate job creation or cultural polarisation is pushed to the back pages. At least three English and half a dozen Hindi news channels have been actively propagating hatred for months now. Online and on air many journalists and editors are raising a call to arms against a community, a religion or even for an ideology. There is vile abuse for any form of criticism or opposition. The basis for the abuse—WhatsApp forwards and history snippets from dodgy fake news sites all amplified by Twitter, Facebook and Google.

This brings in the first set of questions. Why don’t these large platforms impose norms for good behaviour in exchange for using them? Why are bodies such as News Broadcasters Association or the Press Council of India silent on the vituperative content on news channels? Why is there no talk of banning news channels that spread hate?

The second question: why are news media brands not battling to capture the market for the remaining 69 per cent voters who did not vote for the BJP? You could argue that media owners are scared of reprisals. Is the fear justified?

In November 2017 Delhi Press’ Caravanpublished on its website a potentially politically sensitive story on the mystery surrounding the death of Justice Loya. It was ignored by most major newspapers and news channels till the four Supreme Court judges called attention to it and Opposition parties jumped in. Did Caravansuffer because of the story? No, says Anant Nath, director, Delhi Press and editor, Caravan.

You could argue that Caravan is a small literary brand not worthy of attention. Some of the bigger, independent news firms have been the subject of Central Bureau of Information raids and Income Tax notices. There were 46 attacks on journalists in 2017. Of the 11 killings, three were linked to their work, says “India Freedom Report: Media Freedom and Freedom of Expression in 2017” brought out by The Hoot. Note that the story was roughly similar in 2016. India ranks a shameful 136 of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index falling three places below its 2016 ranking.

But much of this happened earlier too without so much servility coming into play. Historically when media owners have stood their ground, they have won–remember The Indian Express in the Emergency years. L K Advani said about the press during the Emergency, “When you were asked to bend you chose to crawl.” This time the crawling involves a self-censorship that is appalling for the health of any democracy.

“The censorship is not from the government as much as private media’s fear of the government; either because they make revenues from government advertising or because of fear over big corporate advertisers aligned with the government. Many owners have interests outside of media which require the support and patronage of the government,” says Nath. These could range from defence firms to universities. However the dependence on government advertising can be debated. The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity or DAVP spent close to ~13 billion on behalf of Union ministries and departments on TV, print and radio in 2016-17. That is between 2-3 per cent of total adspend. Should it matter?

So here is the last question. From a journalism perspective even if we give up on news channels as a lost cause, most Indian newspapers have a 50100-(and more) year-old history. They have seen the Independence movement, Emergency and many governments come and go. Why don’t they have a little more confidence in their history, heritage and their ability to survive? A little love for all Indian voters, not just a section of them, might just make for a good business.

Happy Valentine’s Day.