Cynics Society - II

TV Journalist Dil Bhusan Pathak

Cynic's Society - I

The height of cynicism can be seen in an interview after the April 25th earthquake. All of us were still sleeping under the tents, in total shock, suffering from the tremendous mental pressure. We were constantly experiencing endless aftershocks in our day and sleeps. Returning to normal life was a distant dream. All of us were clueless about what happened and what will happen next. In the midst of chaos and confusion, on day 3rd [April 28], there came interview on Kantipur TV, guest was Home Minister Bamdev Gautam. on very attacking mood.  There was something in it, that made me not to like it. I thought one of them will end up punching on the nose of others. Chances were very high, Dil Bhushan Pathak would have to take it on his face, as he was that journalist.  This interview, as Minister said, ‘was intended to excite mass rather than calming the panicked people’ came at a time of national disaster. One UN report says, about 8 million people were directly affected due to this mega quake. It seems most of them and almost all Nepali were expecting our leaders to come to their door to console them along with relief materials. Then, all they wanted was a tent and nothing else.

I am not implying here that journalists should not criticise our government for their delayed action, but to criticise our government and system on 3rd day of the national emergency day was simply unexpected from a responsible journalist. Even if, he was repeatedly using the word ‘for the mass you have to answer this’. How come a journalist of my country can be so insensitive towards mass and their collective fear, when we were facing mega earthquake, that hits us every 80 - 100 years ? Was not that too early and too judgmental ? If he is truly a responsible journalist, he would have picked a person or a religious figure to pacify the panicked mass. Instead, here minister was attacked and bombarded with questions, that irritated him and left him hyper and red face. It did not helped audience but sure it angered them. Here, I would like to ask Mr. Pathak, is this only our government’s problem when natural disaster like that happens in our country ?  And is that how we react in such situation ? is attacking is what you call responsibility of a journalist ?

That interview and its timing made me speechless. So, I switched to foreign channels. CNN have become the first choice then. They were talking about, how the world have poured their hearts out to send relief materials and money they collected after seeing world headlines of our 7.8 MI earthquake have hit. CNN was telling us the traffic jam in our airport, they were saying how many country came with relief team and cargo and how they were having problem unloading it in our airport. It was them telling us, who were giving us how much. But, on Kantipur paper and TV - I mostly stick with these two, all I saw news dominated by negative news about the disastrous earthquake.

This is ethic less journalism. And media involved in it, is equally responsible for such negative interviews. This is the reason, mass have lost their due respect for our journalists - Dil Bhushan Pathak is on top of my list. Because, journalist are the ones, who have been injecting hatred and anger in the mind of mass against the politicians, sometimes for the reasons; they should not be blamed for. Therefore, it should not surprise us, if our people blame our politicians for earthquake, flood and natural calamities, as if they have the mobile number of individual natural calamities handler.

Journalist should act as a mediator to help mass understand the things that goes around us. So many times, it seems that our journalists forgets they are journalist, instead; they think they are the Indian movie actors, who act in bollywood movie like Nayek. Not surprisingly, they pretends as if he is one of them and thinks just like the actor, they can protect the mass - the victims from the evil - politicians.  The reality is, they are journalist the the fan of their favorite hero who can do anything in the world of fiction. Kantipur TV never let a single person pass by when they went on field after earthquake to report about it, like who did not get relief materials from Government. Then, they focused on how Indian media was doing and how come there were so many Indian jet planes in our airport.

Now its time to switch on BBC, there they were talking about Joanna Lumle, the British actress and activist, who had teamed up with a TV channels and 13 local NGOs to raise funds for Nepal to help earthquake victims. They have raised almost 3 billions Rs in about 22 hours. We read in Facebook how the Facebook company have taken the initiative to collect funds to help Nepal and it was able to collect about 20 million dollar adding 2 million from company, in just a week and then handed over to one local NGO who will be carrying its work in Nepal.

Facebook was filled with all sorts of news that was not in our TV and Newspaper. The good news of good hearted people was in foreign channels and newspapers. Slowly, it caught the Facebook circle and suddenly it caught like wildfire to all the Nepali around the world, to come forward and then do something, whatever they could for this quake suffering nation. Ironically, all this have started with those who have posted wai wai and couple of water bottles before going to help the people they could, to the place where they can. Some of the people criticized it ‘pathetic’ looking pictures of ‘givings’. But, that small act of helping people, who are in need; caught viral in our social media and then it started snowballing. Never before, in our life we have seen Nepali rising for another Nepali and extending their hand to unknown those who have suffered, lost the home and loved ones. It took about a week or ten days, then suddenly just like that the pages of Kantipur started telling us about those good hearted people, who came forward out of nowhere to help the needy in this tragic condition. Australian businessman NRN Shesh Ghale, Russian businessman Upendra Mahato and our very own, Forbes listed billionaire Binod Chaudhary came with big heart and wallet to help those who needed help. There were other cluster groups like Bibeksheel Nepali, Help Nepal network and many more who are still working on to rebuild and reconstruction project.

If we keep aside the impact of facebook during earthquake and CNN and BBC, our negative reporting is gripping the mass with negative thinking as we hardly get a chance to read good reporting in our news. Busting scam only is not the sole job of media men.  If we keep talking about all the negative side of it, when can we eradicate the evils sides of society ? We have to show this society good path also not just the dark side of the society. The problem is all the good work is left for INGO or NGOs.

Why ? Is this only  the work of INGO or NGOs to talk about the human right, rights of  indigenous or the rights marginalized people, who have been denied their basic rights in our society, when it's the problem faced in our society ? This tells the different side of the story. How biased our journalists are, when it comes to solve the problems, our society is facing. It has been seen that journalist always see those INGO and NGO works with the doubt in their head. Why they are better paid than  them ? Needless to tell you, whole nation is infected with such a negative thinking that makes me worry hard.

Politics is not everything : Many survey have revealed that our news are dominated by politics. In fact, survey says 90% news are about politics and politicians, as if; politics have all the answer. However, if you keep reading editorial or news or letters to editors what you are going to read is, that nothing is right in this country and there you keep reading bureaucrats are corrupt, system does not work in this country, prime minister is ailing and aging. There has been very few talk about development, education, eradication of social evils, superstitions science and technology, equal rights, gender equality, what we can do to eradicate untouchables. How can we solve our society’s problem wisely that divide our nation ? be it religious, women's health, girls education. If we want to address development in our village, we have to focus on women's health, send our girls to school to reduce child death rate. Stop child marriage to save women from multiple health problems. Our county depends on agro which is labor consuming we should focus on other areas to create more job or money to new generation. For that, there should be more focus on science and technology not just IT sector but in other areas also. When we will get a chance to read good news about our society, about good future planning ? Must we protest on street to get the attention of the media boss or editors also ?

There is no doubt, good analysis and constructive criticism demands qualified professional to understand and then pen down. People who earns better than journalist are always viewed as greedy and corrupt by our media friends and they mold it as if,  it's the voice of our mass.  It is strange, why journalist whose basic salary is not even 15,000 pm views all others who makes higher than them, are not deserving for good pay ? Hard working and sweating work and people have always been appreciated, but those hard working Nepali lives has never ever uplifted the life of average Nepali, just like the low paid journalist could not come up with better thinking to shape a better and progressive society.

Note : 

1. the interview can be seen in this link.

2. This article has already been published in Samhita Magazine [2015] which is published by Press Council Nepal on trimester basis.