Sunday, July 14, 2019

How much is too much I

“If you give me 50 corod I will kill Modi” was shared on Facebook with a news link. Under this link post, a nepali [ Salim Yonjan Tamang - Bhai] commented, “if you give me 50 lakh I will kill Oli”. In the video a BSF Soldier [Indian army] Tej Bahadur was captured on mobile video by his friends talking about his intention of assassination for huge sum. Needless to tell you, it went viral in social media because Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India. You can watch it as breaking news on Youtube also. This is creating media buzz now. 

We live in an age of internet, google and Facebook. Everything that is in internet is in Facebook or vice a versa. It is said that Facebook alone contributes to circle around 66% of our daily news dose. We can imagine the impact of it when we know that there are over 2.38 billion monthly active users (MAU) as of March 31, 2019. This means if it's in Facebook its everywhere. It will circulate the news like wildfire and not just locally but gets circulated in globe, with millions of views within 24 hours.

The new age technology changed our life drastically, in a way to get informed, as well as the way we communicate with each others and share news with other society. This happens now in lightning fast speed. Facebook is the real version of the concept in a blink of an eye. But this easy and fast expression as well as circulation has not only up side to it but also a downside. Downside of social media and internet is that we now have overflow of news and views. What is interesting is, now a days; majority of journalists use social media to get news and views not just share their thought on it.

It is not easy to understand why negative news flies like storm and good news travels at snail pace. But, just because we fail to grasp the power of negative news truth is not going to change. This is the reason which pose a big challenge to those who are in media watchdog position. It seems we can control only the smaller number of people who are using it to get 15 minute news break. Sometimes it may not be even intentional but lack of  understanding of media and its lasting impact to the mass at large.

On his facebook post on April 29, 2019, Kantipur journalist Dil Nisani Magar came forward strongly to support Sr. Captain Vijay Lama to denounce the decision of Nepal Airlines [NAC] to terminate him from the position of NAC spokesperson. The journalist gave his strong voice to the flight captain making us believe that top heads in NAC did wrong with their actions against the spokesperson. Anyone could feel his anger, agitation and loudness in this thought when the journalist expressed further that, good people are punished and corrupt are enjoying. But, the question is can a corporate spokesperson practice his individual out speaking nature in public just because he knows couple of company secret as an insider ? Remember he is not just a senior pilot but, he also represented the corporate image in public being a spokesperson of the airline company. In his termination letter that was posted on Facebook by Kishor Shrestha, Sr. journalist and Editor of Jana Astha weekly, NAC sounded very professional than the angry and agitated Kantipur journalist.

Now, it's not the question of who is wrong ?  But the big question is, what is wrong ? Is speaking your mind is freedom of speech ? Ashutosh Tiwari, Managing Director of Safal Partners, Entrepreneur and motivation guru posted on his wall about this issue, making us understand that, one cannot practice one’s individual habit of being outspoken when he represent a company. Another question also rise here, should not a man with a long career history working in such high position know about basic corporate business ethics ?

When we talk about freedom of speech, who can forget about the interview of CK Raut by Rishi Dhamala on ABC which give Raut opportunity to use national channel for his extreme opinion to divide community and talk of nation breaking nation. Strong opinions are fine within the boundary of four walls; unless, those voice are provided platform to reach in mass media channels. Television is one of the most effective way to reach bigger mass in an instance, so journalist there must practice a little more than basic norms of ethics. Should not Dhamala be knowing the limitations of freedom of press ? Fine he did not know about it but should not the channel owner be aware of the basic norms of freedom of speech before exercising it ?

A little more than a year ago there was a news posted in online news portal- RatoPati. According to it a mother of 36 year old fell in love and wanted to marry his 19 year old son. This news made me question who gave him license to write news ? How come a journalist is not aware of the difference between love and lust ? How come we believe that the editor of it was not even aware of such news. Can we trust journalist who lacks the common sense to answer one question what kind of message he is trying to spread it society ? Does he or his team thinks this is press freedom ?

In April a journalist [Arjun Giri] was jailed by CBI for three days for his news of thugs based on the complaint of victims. Press council and FJ went up and pulled him from CBI to bring him under its net, not just for his safety but also to reprimand him not to do anything to come under the law.

As I am writing this, there is a video going viral on social media about the obnoxious behavior of a journalist [Sushil Pandey] when he had Deputy Prime Minister Upendra Yadav on Avenue Television’s studio. When the high ranking government representative repeatedly told him about his objectionable way of interviewing, he forgot he is journalist and snapped saying to leave the studio if he can not answer all his questions. What happened after that grabbed the attention of all those who keep eyes on media people and their behavior. After watching the video, media expert Mr. Bhanubhakta Acharya posted on his wall, he could not take sides as both seemed wrong in their manners.

Nepali Times posted on May 14, 2019 two days after the interview aired, “The arrogant, undisciplined, rude and bullish behavior of a media person is making things difficult for those who oppose the government’s Media Bill designed to drag down the press like a stone tied to the neck. This is serious and despicable. An individual’s mistake drags down the whole profession. Gatekeepers should pay attention.”

Sushil Pandey may have enjoyed popularity but people will remember him as the one who is not the kind of journalist you should sit down on your sofa to watch him to understand news. His behavior demonstrated that core believe which our media persons clings so desperately. According to that believe politicians have that magic key which solves all problems overnight. Ironically, DPM Upendra Yadav responded at a time we don't use Aladdin's lamp to solve problems.

Our media people keep exhibiting that deep rooted belief of rebelling to raise topics in media. Expressing anger towards the person sitting on opposite chair. Very few of them are trained enough to face those who carry different believe than we do. It is funny that public at large blame politicians for everything like flood, earthquake, natural calamities and all that goes wrong in our society. Some of our journalist represent them instead of making them understand politicians are not god.

Note :

    1. Second part of this article will be published in next week.
    2. This article has been published in Samhita, Asar 2076. Samhita is a trimester magazine that is published by Press Council of Nepal. 

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