Freedom For All, not Some of the People!

I remember the phrase 'Draconian laws' being bandied about way back in the late 80s when the then government wanted to pass laws restricting what the media could cover and what they could say. The media made a spirited defense of the right to free speech and eventually managed to prevent the law from being passed. sad to say, according to media behaviour, it looks like the principles of free speech only seem to apply to the corporatised, powerful media today.

Indi blogger Chyetanya, after the Mumbai attacks in November, had more than a few pithy things to say about the media coverage of it. Of course, many journalists have taken up this issue since, and it seems quite clear that if on the one hand the government was stupid to not orchestrate the media coverage of the event, the television media in particular left no stone unturned in covering every minute detail of what happened, to the extent of endangering the rescue operations. Television channels competed with each other to be the first to cover each gory detail, even getting in the way of the rescue team at the Nariman House site, while the poor SWAT team practically pleaded with the reporters to stand back.

But Barkha Dutt and NDTV have decided that while they can't do much about the mainstream media's condemnation of the type of coverage, the place where they can win is the blogosphere and they have bullied this blogger to take his post off the blog. Here's his post: http://ckunte.com/archives/withdrawal withdrawing his earlier post.


Here's what some other bloggers had to say about it:
http://themadmomma.wordpress.com/
http://eveslungs.blogspot.com
http://mommustbecrazy.blogspot.com/2008/11/imho.html
Some linked up posts on Desi Pundit - http://www.desipundit.com/2009/01/28/blogger-silenced-by-ndtv/comment-page-1/
http://dipalitaneja.blogspot.com
Also, another blogger found the facebook converstation where it seems Barkha talks about sending legal notice to Ckunte
http://retributions.nationalinterest.in/so-ndtv-did-sue-mr-kunte/
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=52492265639&topic=5983

What's next - suing all the facebook members who joined the group Get Barkha Dutt off the air?

It's time the media remembered that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Free speech means not just for the media but for all the people!


Comments

Anonymous said…
Check out this article for a point of view of our media during the Mumbai attacks
http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/four-days-of-terror-in-mumbai-january-09
February 11, 2009 at 10:59 PM
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