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The peeping news
Last week, we aired our displeasure at the Govt's recent plans of introducing changes in the Broadcast Bill.
Last week, we aired our displeasure at the government’s recent plans of introducing changes in the Broadcast Bill. In a show of concern over the media infringing on the right to privacy of individuals, the I&B Ministry was surreptitiously trying to prevent unorthodox exposés of rotten apples among the political class. We had argued then that the issue of privacy is a separate — and important — one, and by lumping it with that of sting operations was patently wrong and damaging for the freedom of the media in this country. So it’s only fair that we now turn our attention to the media’s growing propensity to turn a private matter into public programming.
The media, especially television channels, work on the principle of hooking the reader’s or viewer’s attention. There’s nothing wrong with that. What is wrong, however, is when things go overboard in an attempt to air something and anything as news, the more invasive the better. Take the latest case of a university professor in Patna, a JNU student and the man’s wife. After sniffing out a romance between the professor and the student, the wife called the police (alleging that her husband was making pornographic CDs, a criminal offence that having an extra-marital affair is not). A TV crew towed along with the police and the wife, covering the ‘exposé’ and its aftermath (tears, hysterical cat-fight, blackening of face et al) for a television audience. Was this news? Was this a case in which either social or national concerns outweighed the ethical notion of not invading private lives?
In the West (and increasingly that includes the sanguine French these days), the media find nothing untoward in reporting the private lives of public figures, the tabloids making such exposés their USP. In fact, even the private lives of ‘private’ people are not spared in programmes such as The Jerry Springer Show in the US. In India, the mainstream media had, till recently, stayed away from playing Peeping Tom. That seems to be no longer the case. Whether it’s airing invasive clips on an endless loop (all in the name of providing news and unfolding a ‘debate’) or tagging along Cops-style with law enforcers, there’s a serious breach of form taking place. It wouldn’t be unthinkable if ‘news’ is already being manufactured for the sake of TRPs and circulations. The media should be concerned and seriously set up their own rules and regulations — before the government shows its concern and takes matters into its own hands.
