Why I agree with Justice Katju

To be honest I haven’t heard about Justice Katju before his interview with Karan Thapar, but does it matter? This post is about what Justice Katju said to Karan Thapar and for which celebrity journalist couple of Mr & Mrs Sardesai started conducting poll, debates and tweeting

Should Justice Katju apologise to journalists for calling them uneducated?

Few editors and coloumnist have already written or will be in process of writing articles criticizing Justice Katju. As expected Editor’s guild issued a statement criticizing Justice Ratju

The Editors Guild today (November 1) termed as “ill-considered” the comments made by the new Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju against the media and vowed to oppose any move by it to assume “draconian” powers and bring the electronic media under its ambit.

I presume people at large would be happy with what Justice Ratju’s view on currents state on Indian media, at least I do and here I will discuss key points as mentioned by Justice Katju.

Disclaimer: All eggs in the basket are not bad but we have a case where we have many more and bigger bad eggs than good. Also when I say I agree with Mr Katju on these comments, I mean on these comments only. I have to write this for Indian media as they are master of twisting statements.

1. It often diverts the attention of the people from the real problems which are basically economic.

This is one of the big issues, media most of the time looks at the crooked finger instead of the moon it’s trying to show. They confuse people by focusing on messenger instead of message. whether its 2G or letter from Pranab Da’s office, simple more focus who issued Chidabram and Pranab instead focusing more on content of that letter, India care more about cold war between two ministers or the big corruption which they are trying to hide. On Anna issue, media initially tried to downplay, however TRP forced them to cover Anna movement and then when they did they never discussed the issues, content of different drafts but personalities and big confusing words around death of democracy, insult of parliament. … Seriously insult of parliament and democracy…

2. You see, this is a country of great diversity because it is a country broadly of immigrants. We must, therefore, respect each other and we must remain united.

For media every news has to be religion or caste based. Why can’t they treat loss of life as human instead of counting them as Muslims or Hindu. I want to ask Modi hater media why don’t you question him about loss of humans instead of asking then 700 or 1000 Muslims died, rest were also humans including those who died in train. Why a caste of girl raped is important, Every other day we hear women teased or raped, is it important to classify her as hindu, muslim, dalit, kashmiri or anything else… Politicians want us to remain divided so that they can rule us and media just for TRP or favors from their political master’s support this divide and rule theory.. yes we do see some token shows/news on harmony and united India.

3. I said India is passing in a transitional period from feudal society to modern society. So the media must promote scientific ideas to help the country move forward, like the European media did in the period of transition in Europe.

Quality of content - Indian News

How many scientific and educational program you see on news channels… look at India TV – do I need to say more, on these news channel Rakhi sawant is prime time news..seriously don’t you agree with the low quality of content?

4. Paid news

Absolutely, if you’ve heard of the scandal of paid news in the year 2009 elections, you know what happened. You know earlier the journalist would go to the candidates in elections and ask for money, ‘You give me Rs 10,000 and I will publish news in your favour’. Then it appears that the proprietors got a wise idea that why should these working journalists make money why should we not make money. Then they came forward saying ‘you give me one crore and a package will be given to you, front page headline news will be in your favour’. And an astounding thing happened in 2009 elections. Candidate A in the front page of the newspapers says he’s winning by a
large number of votes, by a large majority; and the lower part of the front page paid for by the rival candidate says that candidate A is losing his security deposit. So you see on the same page he’s winning by a thumping majority and he’s also losing his security.

— No comments on this —– and did you notice all those criticizing him never mention paid news… “Action speaks louder than words”

5. Frequently damages the reputation of innocent people by either misrepresenting them or, worse, by suggesting or claiming or proclaiming that they are guilty without reason and without evidence

This is their favorite job…. this gives them the feeling they are above all, they are God and they have the power to make or break someone. If you are against us we will damage your reputation..or pay (reward) us and we will improve your image… and when it hits one of them all of them go hiding.. news are blacked out again and again.. thanks to twitter , facebook and other social media platforms its getting difficult

6. The majority, I’m sorry to say, are of a very poor intellectual level, media people, I doubt whether they have any idea of economic theory or political science, philosophy, literature, I have grave doubts whether they are well read in all this, which they should be.

Intellectually zero, look at bias in the articles, tv shows and some of them only shout. They shout about politics as business same is true about media corporate houses..
Think hard, how many journalist focus on issue and give insights?

Panelist – Why do see same panelist on all debates, some time looks like panelist have no other jobs just to appear on these shows with no objective and no sense. Their point of view is so biased and emotional, rarely we see panelist with facts.

and please understand degree from Oxford US doesn’t mean you have intellect or knowledge.

Here is the old picture of ‘Media who is connected to whom’ – I need a better source and updated picture, please share if you have one…

Do read “Why I quit the media”

I also wanted  to comment on this article on firstpost  “Justice Katju, you’re not an editor an certainly not God”

Anant Rangaswami in his article wrote

“Indian media is very often playing an anti-people role. It often diverts the attention of the people from the real problems which are basically economic. (About) 80 percent people are living in horrible poverty, unemployment, facing price rise, health care (problems),” said Justice Markandey Katju, chairman of the Press Council of India, in an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN.

Of all the statements made by Katju, this one is most alarming. If the media, in their wisdom, choose to focus on certain areas more than some others, it is of no consequence to the Press Council. It is, simply, an editorial call. It is a call, which in the long run, will be judged not by Katju, but by readers and advertisers.

It’s an editorial call?… Sir, whole issue is around quality of editors and their bias.

Judged by readers– are you listening to your readers ?

Judged by advertisers – This is true, media can hide story around a corporate house as they are biggest advertisers.. that’s how news are published?

I wanted to write a lot, but it will be difficult to read that much of frustration, hope you got my point..

And finally as Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai says Editor’s take — I will say ‘Reader’s take’

“It’s time that strong controls should be put in place which can stop or reduce corruption in our 4th pillar. Journalist and editors need to invest more on finding truth, focus on key issues and not on sensationalism, reduce bias in articles/stories, do fair coverage, do not push hidden agenda, present facts and not twist them, educate people of India, create awareness around social issues, innovate how you present do not copy CNN or BBC anchors, show more news, less ads and do not create fake or twist tweets” Good Night

#isupportJusticeKatju