Print Media a light in the Dark?
The print media of our times has been called a champion of freedom of expression and the sword-arm of democracy. It is an institution which commands awe and respect of nations as well as individuals, because it is the most powerful investigate machinery that exposes their misdeeds. In a world where politicians are busy looting their countries, where the drug mafia and crime syndicates are generating human misery and anarchy, and where ordinary human beings having no links with power-lords have been reduced to a state of helplessness, only the print media champions the cause of the have-nots and acts as a balm on their wounds. But is print media actually does what it claims or are these words just as empty and shallow as they seem is print media actually a light in the cold dark world of greed and corruption?
The print media does much good by highlighting many ills of
society such as nepotism, cronyism and corruption in institutions which should
be virginal and puritanical in their make and behavior and by carrying on a
relentless campaign against them. But sometimes it also does much harm when it
spoils human relations and international harmony with its biased and
propaganda-laden criticism. The press has acquired this potential for mischief,
because in some counties it is not free in the true sense of the term. It is
controlled by media barons, industrial houses and governments wielding
dictatorial powers. All these media lords use the press to serve their
interests which are always at odds with humanitarian considerations and which
often fuel fires of hatred, strife and anarchy, instead of cementing bonds of
love and brotherhood among people belonging to different nations, classes or
creeds. Under the protective arm of these overlords flourish many types of
parasitical individuals including writers and would-be-seekers bureaucrats,
educationists and guardians of law and order. Their editorials and write-ups
justify all acts of omission and commission of their patrons and proteges. Some
change color like the today, and denounce their former favorite a couple of
weeks later. Such shifts, twists and somersaults can be traced in the
editorials of many newspapers.
There is no doubt that the institution of the press has been
instrumental in causing the downfall of ruthless dictators and oppressive
regimes in many countries of the world. Editors and writers of articles against
the excesses of men in power have been jailed, tortured and humiliated for
asserting freedom of expression and freedom of the voice of conscience,
upholding humanitarian causes and giving support to struggles for the
emancipation of enslaved people. They have unearthed political scandals,
kickbacks received by highly placed men in countries like Japan, and Italy
which led to their downfall, security scams of stockbrokers and even sex
aberrations of men and women who had cleverly shrouded their nefarious deeds in
apparently transparent and spotless apparel of lechery. Some journalists and
editor have sacrificed their lucrative jobs to uphold certain cherished
principles by refusing to toe the line of their bosses. Some fearless
journalists have defied censorship laws to expose the misdeeds of ruler. The US
press and also the British press have established their reputation as the most
fearless champions of freedom of expression. All these are highly commendable
achievements of the print media.
But all is not well under the towering roof of the structure
of journalism. It overshadows and dwarfs many institutions of society which
have their usefulness to man. Newspapers with a few on a war with their rivals
on issues that generate heat and harm national interests. Codes of conduct
framed by associations of journalists are violated and old scores are settled
in the name of freedom of expression. Many editors perch themselves on high
pedestals from which they preach sermons to both high and low. They claim that
they can predict the color of coming events with oracular accuracy. This mantle
of preachers and prophets gives the aura of dignity to their highly
intellectual frame, and they need not cast it off. But what they say should be
impartial, non-partisan and universally, acceptable. There are some cherished
values associated with clean journalism and these should not be bartered with
opportunistic gains.
There was a time when the press was a champion of the rights
of the oppressed, of sound principles of morality, of justice to those who were
illegally and arbitrarily denied what was due to them, and of many other noble
causes. How many modern newspapers are not champions of their own commercial
interests? How many do not boost their sales by reviving old hatreds and
enmities between classes and countries? What most papers give their reader is
simply sensation-creating stuff. They publish stories about the private lives
of princes and presidents and photographs of female nudity to the morbid and
vulgar demands of readers, and peeping Toms. A glaring instance of the misuse
of freedom of the press in the west is the growing tendency of some British
papers to publish sex live. There is a circulation war going on in the
corridors of “Fleet Street”. To figure as victors in this war they publish articles
on the “sexcapades” of the famous and not so famous. Both highbrow dailies and
breast-baring tabloids are vying with each other to regale the public with sex
scandals involving politicians and their mistresses, actresses and their
lovers. In fact the world’s print media as a whole does not feel any pricks of
conscience while dealing with matters relating to se. It regards modern
morality as synonymous with sex-openness. Some of our papers are beginning to
catch the plague of this sex-openness. You can see not less than a dozen
photographs of actors and actresses displaying their semi-nudities in various
fleshing-uniting postures especially in many evening newspapers.
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