Restraint is required
Editorial
The Pioneer
http://www.dailypioneer.com
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Cacophony of voices can have adverse effect
It is amazing how casually terrorist attacks (as also natural
disasters and major accidents) with devastating consequences are
treated in our country by both authority and media. There is little
or no evidence of restraint and caution being exercised by either –
on the contrary, there’s some sort of a competition to outdo each
other in speculating and commenting on imponderables that are best
left for another day. Hence, we have a situation, as was witnessed on
Wednesday after the deadly terrorist bombing at the gate of Delhi
High Court, where ill-informed though senior journalists merrily put
out what is purported to be ‘information’ but in reality dangerously
verges on the margins of misinformation and even disinformation.
There is little understanding of the nature of a particular attack,
the footprints that could indicate the role of a certain group or
organisation, the explosive material that has been used and the modus
operandi of the terrorists. Yet, great knowledge is pretended by both
journalists and professional commentators, usually those who crowd
the small screen, who waste no time in ‘analysing’, ‘commenting’ and
‘pontificating’ on an event unravelling whose intricate details would
usually take days if not weeks for qualified investigators. It could
be argued that the demands of a 24-hour news cycle preclude either
sobriety or caution in both the presentation of news as well as
analysing what’s on offer at any given hour. There is also the
indisputable view that more extensive the coverage, the lesser the
chances of a cover-up by authority in order to hide its own failures
and shortcomings. But both points would raise the question: Shouldn’t
media be more responsible and less adventurous in such situations?
The answer to this question would be obvious to all.
But it’s not media alone which is given to kite-flying in order to be
seen as being ahead of the curve; authority is no different. There is
every reason why senior police officers, Government officials and
others whose remit it is to deal with disaster scenarios of any kind
should maintain silence till there is something definitive to be
disclosed. Instead, what we have are garrulous individuals eager to
be seen on television during prime time news or feature on the front
page of newspapers the next morning. Such cacophony of voices
contributes nothing but confusion; rather than reassure people that
there is no cause for panic, they achieve an entirely unintended
objective. There’s a way out of this predictable response: Rules of
engagement need to be defined for both authority and media and
enforced with a certain degree of inflexibility. The need for this
was acutely felt during the 26/11 bloodbath in Mumbai but nothing was
done to put into place correctives. Perhaps this cannot be delayed
any longer.
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Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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