Do we really think that the media in our country still is one of the pillars of democracy and not biased towards any political party sponsoring it or connected to it by any other way?
This is important for us to understand because social media has made an environment around us in which we seldom try hard to verify what we see and keep on believing one side of the story.
We believe that there will be a grey area that is often hardly noticeable. But, it becomes a major issue and which must be considered when it starts haunting black and white. The same is occurring in our country which has ever really seen a golden period when it comes to journalism but still this issue never reached this extent.
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Recently when I switched to a news channel on television, my observations were worrying. The headline was like “from Bengaluru, destroy Lahore” referencing a missile that could target Lahore if launched from Bengaluru.
They were showing it even after the spokesperson of the
External Affairs Ministry himself assured us of using the available diplomatic channels. Do we really want that to happen for what they cried?
They become more fierce with the same intentions of playing with the emotions of the targeted audience when it comes to religion.
When media starts upholding any one religion in a secular state, we should be conscious of what we see even if we belong to the same religion. It becomes more critical for the minority sections if that religion holds the majority of the population which is very often.
It is even more terrifying when a political party ostensibly has a religion and politicizes the same openly through their sponsored news channel. History has taught us that peace can only be maintained in this country if the majority section can assure the minority section’s safety.
Freedom of the press has been in the air since it came into existence. Although it has been attacked many times by the ruling authorities, fighting against those attacks on any of the privileges it must be given was easier and it has survived without selling its soul.
But, it is more difficult to fight when there is parallel politics running in association with some news channels working on the fake news more than the real ones.
We need to recognize the driving force of such kind of journalism. We are the only ones enjoying personalities crying on a TV debate with pointless agenda or with a modified agenda far from true facts, enjoying belonging to a religion holding majority and criminalizing the other one without knowing another side of the story. Some of the media houses or news channels are doing this only because we are availing and profiting them.
