As I write this, India is still recovering from five bombs that snuffed out 30 lives in Delhi.
Terrorists have struck once again. With impunity.
Over the last 13 years I have put together more editions dominated by terror than I care to remember. It scares me that newsrooms now have the drill down pat. We no longer need to discuss what needs to be done every time a bomb goes off. We have a standard operating procedure.
Every time this happens, I also come away disturbed at how the media react. The shrill tone of the TV channels and their readiness to go on air with any scrap of unverified information is scary. I watched in horror as one Hindi channel said a young boy with a bomb strapped to his body had been found and that the police were taking him away to a safe spot to defuse the device, somewhere there wouldn’t be too much damage if it did go off.
The truth came out a little later – the boy was a poor balloon seller who had seen two men dressed in black deposit a packet into a dustbin. The bin exploded some time later and the packet those men had thrown in it was probably the bomb.
He was a witness, not a suicide bomber.
But was the print media above reproach? Did it not make any mistakes?
While it was a whole lot less alarmist, there is one question: Did we do the right thing by publishing the boy’s photograph?
Two things go against it. One, the boy’s a minor. Even witnesses in many court cases who are under 18 are granted anonymity in the media. Two, as somebody who could potentially identify the men behind a terrorist attack, his life could be in serious danger.
My paper published his name and picture too. And it was on my shift. I saw the page. I saw the picture on it. I saw the boy’s interview.
Yet, it never struck me that perhaps we weren’t doing right. That’s the problem with standard operating procedure. It’s more like an assembly line. Less like a newspaper.
I’d like to know what you think.
Ashraf Engineer
anjali said,
September 14, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I was actually really surprised when I saw the photo in the ht. Especially because ibn and ndtv had masked his face (don’t know what the other channels did). Just thought ht should’ve been responsible and kept his identity secret. Even if we don’t have a good witness protection program in this country the responsibilty can start with us in the media.
Arpana said,
September 15, 2008 at 4:37 am
That was the first thought that struck me too…….why subject the poor boy to such utter public scrutiny…..the threat to his life apart.
You know the media is day by day getting absolutely stupid (no better word!)…..the hysterical reporting….even if there was no panic amongst people….this kind of reporting ensures that there is some. STAR News had a reporter on a cycle reporting about how a cycle bomb was used…..puhlease…we can do without such dramatisation.
Where is the person in the “newsperson”????
Rajyashree said,
September 15, 2008 at 4:58 am
The media in the country today is so busy chasing “breaking news” that their insensitivity results in what has been termed ’standard operating procedure’! This goes for both TV and print. Outcome: shoddy, shrill and completely inhuman take on the tragedies that hit the unsuspecting common man…wonder if any of these circulation and TRP chasing folks realize how mediocre and cold their work is!
The media’s job is to inform in a responsible and unbiased manner; not cause panic…which BTW seems more like the ‘code of conduct’ off late.
It’s sickening…How can violence and loss of human life be treated in such a process driven manner?
Lotfullah said,
September 15, 2008 at 5:41 am
Dear Ashraf,
Mainly the kids are being misused for operating such terror and the real goal behind that is the political approach. I think that is not the best deal with the story publishing pictures and and make clear his indentity though it would attract a large attention into the paper.
Children either the kids who are captured before blowing themselves up in Afghanistan are also gone in the papers as well as in the TV channels. But, the media authorities counts their infleunce and popularity higher than a life of an innocent youngman.
Dear Ashraf said,
September 15, 2008 at 7:28 am
I too share the same sentiment with u Ashraf. The photo of the boy was unnecessary. A line or two or even a side story would have been ok, rather than have his photo and story. But I understand what u mean by “assembly” …I guess we in media need to do something about it…draw the line somewhere
Nazim said,
September 15, 2008 at 8:07 am
While all the media overstepped the line (including us), it really is courageous on your part to introspect on whether what we did was correct.
Like you said, the ’standard operating procedure’ harms our style of working — and the TV media are the biggest culprit. They are, I think, the ones who overstep all boundaries and set such precedents.
With such indiscriminate proliferation of news channels, quality reportage is the last thing one might expect — it’s a race to grab the most eyeballs, not to do the best story. With due respect to free-market advocates and libertarians, a regulator for the TV media is what is needed most today. I’ll take the ’90s doordarshan anyday over this tripe.
Nazim said,
September 15, 2008 at 8:15 am
@Rajyashree: The media show what the public wants. Such sickening coverage doesn’t go down well with us, but it works with the ignorant teeming masses of the hinterland. The society, at large, is stupid and the media feeds them stupid dope for consumption. Why do India TV/Aaj Tak have more TRPs than NDTV. Because more people in the villages like to watch that stuff. And Rajat Sharma has a business to run.
Kartikey said,
September 15, 2008 at 8:22 am
Yes, don’t publish it the next time. The news channel didn’t bother about any clarification.
I guess the challenge to the self is to avoid the standard operating procedure, despite the frequency and habit of such attacks.
A deeper challenge lies in pausing to reflect on the self and the work.
Cheers.
Aquin said,
September 15, 2008 at 8:27 am
Everything you said Ashraf is true. I’d not like to comment further. If changing the approach to covering blasts is not possible, least one could do is tweak the assembly line to produce a bit of sensitive news coverage.
alwayssappy said,
September 15, 2008 at 10:11 am
Here is a thought I would like to share on the responsibility of media and terrorist attacks. Just recently, I was debating with a very well know professor from one of the IIMs on the role of media in propagating terrorists agenda.
The professor argued that– terrorists attack to demand attention. As such, the media helps their cause by giving them publicity and infact over hyped publicity. Hence, if media stops giving terrorist attacks publicity, terrorist attacks would eventually decline.
As for me, I argued for media — I know as media, and with India being a democracy and people’s right to information, media is just doing its job.
But, I guess, it is time that that we as media pause and reflect on our actions. Let us adhere to the fine line between sensitive information and breaking news and pursue journalism with more sensitivity.
srini said,
September 15, 2008 at 10:34 am
All TVchannels showed the poor kid for a long time, before the police actually told them they were endangering their witness. Then the pixellation started. Most papers used his pic too. And probably helped sentence the poor kid to death.
Your right about the SOP all though many more issues really haveto do with the fact that newsrooms are no longer newsrooms. The dividing lines between news, views and advertising (and this, most importantl, includes self-advertisement of the newspaper itself, which is no longer a newspaper, but a ‘brand’. TV is no different in its ‘me-first-manship’ games.
Solution journalism is fine and has its place, but not in all situations. Some stories simply have to be told simply.
I think many of our (news guys) angst would reduce if, sometimes (especially times like these), we just did our basic duty first.
Neelesh Misra said,
September 15, 2008 at 2:56 pm
You have raised a very valid question, Ashraf. I completely agree with you. While I do not think the boy’s life in any real danger — he was selling on the road and will probably sell somewhere else in anonymity — I tink it was wrong, in principal, for all media to feature him. But the fact that we are introspecting is in itself a good sign. And I saw that at least NDTV blurred his face. I am hoping that fellow journalists will also begin to learn from our errors.
Dilnaz said,
September 16, 2008 at 8:56 am
I was shocked when I saw the kid on TV. The way the reporters were hounding him, and how the cops didn’t bother protecting their only eye witness at that point. Splashing his picture defintely puts his life in danger. But who cares about a poor boy who sells balloons anyway? The media lacks ethics and ven common sense in some cases. They might as well show people how to assemble crude bombs on tv. I think we should act more responsible and use a little foresight. Who will bear the responsibility if something happens to the boy? Will other eye witnesses have the courage to step forth if this kid disappears? What message are we sending out there? Sad, really. It’s a circus.
Deepa said,
September 17, 2008 at 7:36 am
I do not know if it is the media or the human race! I just feel we make mistakes then look back and feel sorry and move on. Call it human nature. The reseilience is sometimes too painfully quick. Do any of us know how to stop it? Some take refuge in God, some take refuge in fate, some give up on both. We all know it is mockery and we play along. Recently, a friend of mine in Pune called upon an NDTV reporter asking him to do something about the way too frequent power cuts in the city. The reporter first told her she must be an NRI, because “she is not aware of the ground realities” and then told her to hold a dharna..so that he could make news out of it. Win-Win situation ey! All news is good news and ethics, logic and goodwill be damned.
Kamran Shaikh said,
September 21, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Even today when I read in the newspaper about the sufferings of the people injured in bomb blast, it sents shivers down my spine! About the witness, the day bomb blast went off, TV news channel highlighted that a minor street boy has seen the culprits. But to my surprise, one channel was masking the identity and at the very same moment, the other channel was showing the boy! It seems to be everybody was in the haste to prove that their news channel is superior to other..I feel really disgusted with the way things go! I dont know when the media personnels will realise that apart from their work, they have certain duties which needs to be fulfilled sensibly.
Sameer said,
October 2, 2008 at 8:23 am
Hi Ashraf,
Having a “standard operating procedure” is perhaps understandable, but I would have thought that such a procedure would be designed to make sure that such a picture would not be published, rather than the other way round.
Binu Karunakaran said,
October 7, 2008 at 9:06 am
After the Mehrauli blast I have heard an anchor saying terrorists have got their timings wrong and why it should have been between 5 pm and 7 pm if they were looking for a nice bloody toll. I saw the same guy commenting live on camera after seeing a motorbike being wheeled away by cop that it was the same bike used by the terrorists. When the morbid and the stupid come together its altogether a different genre.
I lost touch with your blog for a while. Will keep looking for your posts in future.
Vgossip said,
November 17, 2008 at 10:48 am
Hi,
Nice write up
rajkiran said,
April 22, 2009 at 7:19 am
Frankly speaking,
Day after day, I feel ashamed of “media”. I dont want to call these channels and papers “media”. They have become “Sensational Video Bloggers”.
I hope others introspect the way you are doing. All that I see is bias, prejudices thrown. Information is turned into Entertainment and total crap.
Fortunately, democracy will always correct itself. Internet is true democracy and it will eat up the market share of these sensational channels and they will be reduced to non-entities.