A Scandal Mongering Press
MARIAM ALI BAIG: Although you are a lawyer, in fact a leading constitutional expert in India, would you also say you are a long standing contributor to the print media?
A.G. NOORANI: Yes, although I am off daily journalism now and have become a regular columnist, I do contribute the occasional article for The Times of India and The Hindu. For 31 years I wrote for The Indian Express and nine years for The Statesman. Then for about seven or eight years I wrote for the Hindustan Times. I write regularly for Frontline and I have a regular column in Dawn (Pakistan) every Saturday.
MAB: What is your opinion regarding the Indian print media?
AGN: The process of dumbing down, which began about two decades ago, has picked up speed. Apart from a few newspapers which retain their strength in news reportage, most are in decline and serious columnists are on the wane. A paper in New Delhi was told by its marketing department that people between the ages of 18 and 35 do not read serious columns, so they got rid of their columnists and have TV performers and such like to write instead. There are still one or two newspapers which specialise in investigative reporting but in the main, the news coverage leaves a lot to be desired. As a result, some older newspapers have been run into the ground. The marketing people have enormous influence. Then there are the scandals around what is known as the ‘page three’ in some tabloids, the poor quality of the supplements and the ‘paid’ news. These supplements are a disgrace. There is only one exception, which gives excellent coverage of the arts, music, historical places, etc. Page three is a mere excuse to attract advertising, because all the social events that are covered are paid. The Press Council of India (PCI) has been seized of the matter. The PCI was moribund; virtually lifeless. However, the new head, Justice Markandey Katju, who is a former judge of the Supreme Court, is showing vigour.
MAB: Dumbing down of media is a global phenomenon, wouldn’t you agree?
AGN: Look at what has happened to The Times – it has become a tabloid. However, Le Monde has kept to its standards and so has The Guardian. The New York Times, as far as Israel is concerned, is blind, but that is true of the entire American press; Israel can do no wrong.
MAB: What about the electronic media?
AGN: I mourn the virtual demise of radio…
MAB: Not FM radio, surely?
AGN: FM is still there, but that is music only, Bollywood music and Bollywood too has deteriorated; it is dance and violence. TV is an unmitigated disgrace and disaster. The anchors behave like prosecutors. They pick on a news item and then put together a panel comprising politicians from different parties. It has turned into a Roman blood sport. It is just dumbing down, yet viewers relish this stuff. Now take a programme like (the BBC’s) HARDtalk… that is well researched. As for breaking news, you will find that the BBC and CNN only give breaking news when there really is breaking news. On Indian television there is breaking news all day, with every channel claiming that the same bit of news is exclusive; news has been cheapened. Recently a senior anchor was in Ladakh and he said, “Behind me lies the McMohan Line”! This from a senior anchor of a leading channel; The McMohan Line is confined to the northeast, to the northwest lies the actual Line of Control. Another recent example was when a caveat was filed in the Supreme Court on an important matter and the anchor asked a senior correspondent to explain what a caveat meant to the viewers and the correspondent was perplexed; he didn’t know the meaning of the word. This is the calibre of the people on TV. Yet look at their self assurance, swagger and arrogance, and they have become household names.
MAB: Has the same dumbing down process taken place in the Hindi and regional media as well?
AGN: I don’t want to speak beyond the English language media. I used to watch a Hindi channel, but I found it was no better. Television as a medium has done enormous harm, and not only in India. People should read Al Gore’s book The Assault on Reason and take it to heart. When you read a book, your mind works; when you see a TV clip, it is an assault, and it is followed by nothing… there is no thought.
MAB: Why do you think audiences are accepting such dumbing down?
AGN: This is democracy. Only a few people believe in what Adlai Stevenson said in his ‘Let’s talk sense to the American people’ acceptance speech as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952. In the end, he lost the election.
MAB: India also has some very good investigative magazines!
AGN: Tehelka is doing a good job and so is Outlook. Two other magazines deserve mention: Open and The Caravan. In fact, The Caravan, was originally launched in 1940 as a literary magazine. It has been revived and now covers politics and culture.
MAB: How does the Indian media cover ‘emotive’ issues; for example, relations with Pakistan?
AGN: Biased and tendentious, the editorials are one-sided. There is a complete refusal to look at any viewpoint other than India’s. This is not only confined to Pakistan. The Indian press by and large is rather chauvinistic. On foreign policy, they are very patchy and when they differ in opinion, it is not on the side of moderation. They tend to build up a sense of inferiority. I am a proud Indian and I don’t like Indians who try to create a siege mentality. Even with America – the smallest of incidents can spark a furore. It betrays a fragile ego. Every time an American of Indian origin achieves something, it’s “ah, an Indian has done this.” I believe this is true of Pakistanis too; if anyone praises us, we puff ourselves up, and when we are criticised, we feel depressed. In other words, we want approval – there is a lack of pride. In his memoirs, Abba Eban (the Israeli politician) poured scorn on those Israelis who gloated every time another state recognised Israel. His point was: we exist, what does it matter if we get recognition or not? The trouble in our part of the world is that we can be pompous and arrogant, we can’t be proud.
MAB: Is the press in India free?
AGN: It is free, but it is conformist.
MAB: Would you say it is a responsible press?
AGN: Particularly not on matters concerning Pakistan and China. The government is determined to have good relations with China, but somebody in the government is feeding the press and certain papers are carrying Chinese scare stories about ‘incursions’. The truth is that the boundary has not been defined; there is a difference in perception regarding where the Line of Control lies. Recently, a leading daily carried a story about a Chinese incursion. Well that ‘incursion’ took place in 1986, and all that happened then was that there used to be a post which India used to occupy in summer and vacate in winter, and one winter the Chinese occupied it. It was the reverse of what we did in Siachen. A crisis erupted because somebody was determined to revive this story after 25 years and the people covering foreign news lacked the competence to know better.
MAB: Any chances of a reversal in the dumbing down?
AGN: It may be arrested. However, generally, the press is interested in scandals. It is not interested in serious issues. There are not many people who are able to rise, put their heads above the current and say, ‘we should do this instead’.