Opinion Bad and worse

The News Broadcasters Association’s reaction to Kejriwal’s threat is damaging to itself.

March 19, 2014 12:44 AM IST First published on: Mar 19, 2014 at 12:44 AM IST

The News Broadcasters Association’s reaction to Kejriwal’s threat is damaging to itself.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s statement that media outlets critical of his party had been “paid” by powerful interests, and his threat to jail all erring journalists if he came to power, were silly enough. But if anyone has managed to look even worse, it is the News Broadcasters Association, the premier television industry body.

The NBA has expressed shock at his “unverified and objectionable statements”, and has threatened to “reconsider coverage of the activities of the Aam Aadmi Party”. In response to a sweeping, illiberal remark by an individual politician, we now have a churlish reaction from an institution that represents the media, and should be committed to the cause of free expression.

There was an irony to Kejriwal’s remark, mirroring as it did a 180-degree turn from the days of the Anna Hazare movement, when he told a crowd that “the media has become a part of this movement… talk to them with folded hands”. Back then, many television channels had indeed become collaborators and cheerleaders for his cause, ignoring their professional duties — either because of an emotional response to the anti-corruption crusade, or because of the ratings-friendly spectacle it made.

The necessary distance between campaigns and a free and questioning media was lost, as both Team Anna and TV channels appeared to use each other. Even after the AAP became a political party, for a long time TV news fed on the spectacle of Kejriwal’s unsubstantiated allegations, without the sceptical, analytical cast of mind expected of the media. Now that they find themselves on the other side, written off as biased and complicit — the AAP’s apparently standard dismissal of anyone who criticises them — the broadcasters association is bristling with righteous anger.

The NBA needs to introspect, and not just on the ways in which lines were blurred in the media coverage of the Anna-AAP mobilisations. First, it pretends all is well — even though it is undeniable that instances of paid news, advertorials, sneaky shills and undisclosed interests have eroded the credibility of the media in the public mind.

Then it suggests that criticism of the media should prompt a rethinking of coverage decisions — betraying the principle of free speech and of independent, impartial reporting. As professional errors go, this is a twofer that the broadcasting fraternity will struggle to recover from.