Zunaira Habib Alvi, Senior Secondary (Girls), Aligarh Muslim University

949 views

0 likes

You will need to sign in before you can comment or like.        

   Democracy, in theory, is the rule of the people. The medium of elections ensures that there is a representative of every group of people under a government. Various institutions are essential for the healthy working of a government; be it representative or not. These include - the judiciary, the opposition, the people themselves, and most importantly, the media. For a democracy to run smoothly, freedom of speech, expression and the press are vital. Many regard the press as the fourth pillar of democracy - as it is independent of all government offices and protocols.
  But alas, age-old sayings with fancy texts do not define the form media and journalism has taken in contemporary times. Media in the modern world has become a double-edged sword - a tool for dissent as well as a weapon of propaganda. Freedom of speech and dissent is being hushed out by ruling groups worldwide - by both attacking journalists and media who oppose them and by spreading tales of their own glory through channels they own. Examples are common everywhere - North Korea, Israel, the new Afghan regime, China, as well as our very own India, which ranks 142nd out of 180 spots, a visibly dangerous country for journalists and ‘free’ media.
  It is common for the press to be under various kinds of pressure - regulatory measures and public denunciation enforced by the government or its ‘owned’ media channels, or being offered funds and precious state information in exchange for freedom. The pattern followed by propaganda-oriented media is the same - a popular leader is presented as the defender of the majority, who ‘rightfully’ works against ethnic minorities. Their origins, loyalties and their very citizenship is questioned; clever manipulation of media interests ensures that people find it legit that principles like press freedom and open non-violent criticism can be supressed for the ‘greater interests’ of the State.
  Mainstream media thus faces a catastrophe of credibility, for it refuses to question the government or hold it accountable for it's policies or acknowledge the malfunctioning of the system. Such partisan nature of the press extends beyond television and print media; Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites too have a tendency to be biased on the whole towards the ruling majorities. Ignorance of common people towards topics of actual importance makes them easy targets of being ‘brainwashed’ by the media - inclining them towards forces and ideologies the understand little of. By keeping people diverted, issues of rising unemployment, protesting farmers, lack of medicinal facilities, presentation of inaccurate State data and freedom violations remain unreported.
  However, the current status of global press freedom is not bleak everywhere. Several countries - Ethiopia, Malaysia, Armenia and Ecuador have undergone some improvement in media environments. Just as antidemocratic forces often involve attacks on independent media, reformist leadership can be characterised in part by its willingness to accept criticism from free press. In many cases, the lifting of political pressure on media allows them to revert from censorship and other forms of restrictions.

Comments