Black out and rule

BY Padmaja Shaw| IN Media Freedom | 07/10/2012
In a swift and amazing operation, several Telugu news channels were blacked out on government orders for 20 minutes during the September 30 Telangana rally.
And the water cannons and tear gas shells did their work during that brief blackout, says PADMAJA SHAW
Political and civil society entities demanding a separate Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh called for a rally on September 30. The State government allowed the rally to be held on Necklace Road from 3 pm to 7 pm.
It happened to be a day after the massive and cathartic upheaval the city goes through every year for Ganesh Visarjan which also takes place in close proximity to Necklace Road. In fact, the September 29 Visarajan was still in its final stages when the participants of the rally began to converge at the venue.
Compared to the logistics of the high-strung Ganesh Visarjan processions from all corners of the city and their incendiary potential, the rally should have been a smaller affair to handle for the government.
However, having permitted the rally, the government placed various restrictions on the roads leading to the venue in addition to suspending long-distance and local train and bus services besides clamping prohibitory orders.
Despite the clampdown and sporadic confrontations with the police, people began to assemble in large numbers. One cause for the confrontations was the imposition of Section 144 and prevention of people from moving in groups.
The police insisted on allowing people to go only in singles or in twos. This led to detentions of even some leaders on the way to the rally. Tempers ran high and troublemakers were too eager to take advantage of the situation and indulge in vandalism and arson.
It was in this process that some OB vans of media groups were torched near the venue of the rally. Some police vehicles also met with the same fate even as the organisers were pleading for restraint.
However, when close to a lakh of people managed to reach the venue and the rally finally took off, the organisers began to say that the rally would not disperse after the stipulated 7p.m. and would continue till the Union government announced a time line for the formation of the Telangana state.
When the rally showed no signs of winding up, the security units on duty perhaps wanted to move in and clear the assembled people. Moments before that, several Telugu news channels went off air. For about 20 minutes, the cable operators took off the channels.
A senior television journalist says that Hathway operators told him that the Commissioner of Police had ordered the switching off of the channels, but when the reporters asked the Commissioner he denied passing any such order. Reports say that the security units moved in the water cannons and were lobbing teargas shells at the rallyists during that time.
Next morning, several newspapers, including The Hindu, reported that the news channels were off for about 20 minutes at a critical time when the rally was on. The transmissions were quickly restored before it became an issue.
It must be noted here though there are 14 Telugu news channels in Hyderabad, very few were carrying live feeds. HMTV and Zee 24 Gantalu,  and V6, which was operating through its 3G transmission technology, were the only channels carrying live coverage. The other channels were taking either a delayed feed from V6 or taping the event and sending it in, which meant at least a lag of 45 minutes. This was basically for fear of losing the OB vans to arson/vandalism, which happened to Sakshi.
The other factor was the intense criticism the channels faced early on for giving indiscriminate live coverage. Since then the OB vans are also not being allowed on to the Osmania University campus for covering any event live. The sense of insecurity and a changing perception of the real valueof live coverage among the channels led them to avoid sending OB vans to the venue.
The security establishment couldn’t resist the temptation to “black out” the signal when it had to move into crowd-clearance mode. By the time the channels realised what was happening, the transmissions were restored. It was a swift and successful move that did not generate much debate.
On the other hand, the agitators burnt several vehicles, including police vehicles, and a couple of OB vans. Throughout the agitation there has been a public perception that many of the channels owned by the coastal Andhra entrepreneurs were biased against the Telangana movement and were framing the issue negatively. OB vans were sporadic targets earlier as well.
The responses of both the agitators and the establishment reflect a certain perception about information dissemination about events. All the parties involved have a view about how the media frame the issue, and MUST frame it.
While the street response of the agitators is more emotional at the injustice done to the cause by those who have control over information resources, the security establishment’s responses are more problematic. They do not want be seen doing what they are doing. The presence of the media cramps their style and curtails their freedom to crack down on the agitators.
If rubber bullets or water cannons are used or the police resort to firing resulting in deaths, then it is better to act when the cameras are not sending it to the larger audience instantaneously. The flak and its repercussions can cause serious political damage.This can only be a short-term trick, however.
Some channels must be holding the footage of the missing signal in their archives. Unless the cameras are banned from locations all together, the security establishment cannot keep the “missing moments” of the event from public domain forever.
The multiplicity of views from diverse sources with breathing time for editorial judgment made possible because of the delayed feeds, has in some sense made the coverage less hysterical. It has given a range of opinion and information to the public. This, in a democracy, is an achievement. Even if some tried to spin, the truth will crystallise from the textured canvas that finally showed up on the channels.
But does it then mean the “black out” was also necessary, much like the space for editorial judgment? Won’t such a move be desirable if it came from editorial judgment in public interest rather than from the security establishment? When will whatever transpired during the “black out” find its way into the public domain with adequate context?
Even as Lord Northcliffe’s late 19th century definition of news as “what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising” rings truer than ever, one must admit that media at such times walk a tight rope under the most difficult conditions. This time around too they have done that with great skill and successfully kept us informed despite the “black out” and the violence. Now that the event is over, let us also see the blacked out moments.
 
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