Reporting Gujarat: what the
Editors Guild found:
While the
team found the vernacular Press partly responsible for sowing the seeds of
discord and helping the communal virus to spread fast, it had good words for
the national Press and major TV
networks
Coverage
on Gujarat carnage in both print and electronic media has attracted immense
attention. The issue had become so important the Editor`s Guild had to rush a
team to make an on-the-spot assessment and suggest corrective measures. While
the team found the vernacular Press partly responsible for sowing the seeds of
discord and helping the communal virus to spread fast, it had good words for
the national Press and major TV networks.
Interestingly,
the BJP Government and a section of its police and other officers were more
critical of the national Press and ignored, despite available powers under the
law, rumour mongering by some newspapers in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and other
places. Clearly, this suited their interests and showed their indoctrination to
a particular ideology of Hindutva.
With
television presenting instant powerful images, the role of the media has
assumed greater significance. News is shown as it happens. But the media can
colour the events by using them or by not using them at all. By being
selective, it often misinforms and acts as a propaganda tool. What gives the
media a complex dimension is the daily exposure of multiple items in
juxtaposition. Nevertheless, the media remains a major source of information,
particularly in a violent situation.
How
did the local Press presented the riots to the readers? Has the print media in
any way aggravated the relentless tensions through inflammatory or communal
reportage? These questions bother all right thinking people.
We
are all aware what the national Press reported; we have also watched the
reports of major national TV networks. But what were the local papers
reporting? The role of Gujarati newspapers like Sandesh (Baroda), Gujarat
Samachar (Baroda) and Gujarat Today were analysed for the purpose. Concerned
citizens, Shanti, painstakingly collected data for the study.
Sandesh
crossed all limits of responsible journalism. Its major characteristic was to
feed on the prevalent anti-Muslim prejudices of its Hindu readership and
provoke it further by sensationalising and distorting news. Sandesh used
headlines to provoke, communalise and terrorise people.
Most
reports concerning the post-Godhra violence usually begin with a preceding
sentence, `In the continuing spiral of communal rioting that broke out as a
reaction to the `demonic/barbaric, Godhra incident...`. The denunciatory
adjectives used liberally to describe the Godhra incident were strikingly
absent while reporting subsequent killings. Introductory statement reinforces
an hierarchy in the two sets of crimes. This hierarchy has been established by
the VHP and even Chief Minister Narendra Modi when he justified the genocide in
Newtonian terms. This brings to the fore the supposed objectivity of Sandesh as
a newspaper. Repetitive justification of the post-Godhra violence serves to
neutralise the horror and injustice of the subsequent violence.
The most horrific acts of violence were repeatedly sensationalised with the use of a few devices. For example, large bold letters were used as headlines particularly when referring to gruesome acts like the burning alive of people. Photographs of burnt, mangled bodies were a common feature on the front page or the last page which usually carries local news. Most colour photos have the colour of red for blood accentuated in a gory, visual fashion. Alternatively, photographs of militant, trishul wielding karsevaks were splashed across the front page. Both kinds of photographs serve to instill fear or terror and to provoke intense passions and mutual hostility between the two communities.