Window Seat
| Mrinal Chatterjee | 7.4.19
Media and Politics
Media and Politics has had a very
close relationship from a very long time. In fact most of our freedom fighters
were associated with newspapers either as editor or publisher or contributor.
Post-independence the trend continued. But with a difference. Politicians
gradually began to use media under their control or command for their
self-gain. So did political parties. As media was perceived to wield the power
to influence public opinion and accord a kind of social respectability many
money-bags also entered into media business and through media into politics.
Political parties also wooed several such business men owning media for their
own benefit. In a way politics and media began to have a peculiar kind of
relationship.
This happened all over the country.
Consider the number of owner/editor of media given Rajya Sabha nomination by
political parties in recent past. Names like Kumar
Ketkar, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Sahhid Siddique, Chandan Mitra, Hari Vansh,
Pritish Nandy immediately comes to the mind.
Politicians also took to media in a
big way. Consider the case in Odisha. From the independence till early 2019
Odisha has had 15 Chief Ministers. Out of the 15 Chief Ministers as many as
seven were actively involved in journalism, either bringing out newspapers as
editors or publishing a newspaper. Harekrushna Mahatab, Biju Pattnaik, Biren
Mitra and Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo published Prajatantra, Kalinga’,
Janashakti and Swarajya’ respectively. Nandini Satpathy helped publish ‘Dharitri’. Nilamani Routray was the
editor of Prajatantra. So was Janaki
Ballabh Patnaik, who started his career as journalist in ‘Eastern Times’ and later became its
editor of this daily and Prajatantra.
Radhanath Rath, the
longest serving editor of Samaja was
a minister. Surendra Mohanty who was the editor of Kalinga and later of Sambad
was a MP. Pradyumna Bal who was the editor of the daily Pragativadi was also an MP. Debendra Satpathy, who was the editor
of Dharitri was two terms MP from Dhenkanal. Dinalipi had a politician and former Union Minister Bibhudendu
Mishra as its editor. Sradhakar Supakar, who was the editor of Hirakhanda was a MP. Bairagi Mohanty,
editor of Swarajya was an active
member of Swatantra Party. Rabi Das, who was the managing editor of Pragativadi
was an office bearer of Congress (S).
In the recent times, many
Odia newspapers have owner-editors who are active in politics, Bhrartruhari
Mahatab (editor, Prajatantra) and
Soumya Ranjan Pattnaik (editor, Sambad)
are presently MPs and contesting General Election 2019. Bhrartruhari is a five
times MP and contesting for Cuttack Parliamentary Constituency on Biju Janata
Dal (BJD) Ticket. Soumya Ranjan is a Rajya Sabha MP and is contesting from
Khandapada Assembly Constituency. Tathagat Satpathy (editor, Dharitri and Orissa Post) had own Dhenkanal Parliamentary constituency since
2004 and had announced that he would not be contesting 2019 election. Ranjib
Biswal (Managing Editor, Samaya) for
instance is also a Rajya Sabha Member and National Spokesperson of Congress
Party. His elder brother Chiranjib Biswal (Chairman, Samaya) is the Dy. Leader
of Opposition in Odisha Assembly and member of All India Congress Committee. It
is interesting to note that Sambad,
Dharitri and Samaya are among the
top five largest circulated dailies in Odisha.
There are many first generation politician-media persons as well.
Kharabela Swain, who was BJP MP from Balasore was publishing Bishesh Khabar, a weekly since 1990. He
fell out with BJP, floated his own party and recently has rejoined BJP. Jagi
Mangat Panda, wife of former MP Baijayanta Panda, owns Ortel and OTV Network,
which enjoys huge command in terms of TV Viewership and Television
distribution. Bijayanta is contesting 2019 Election from Kendrapara
Parliamentary Constituency. Achyuta Samanta, Founder of Kalinga TV is presently
an MP (Rajya Sabha) and is contesting for Kandhamal Lok Sabha in BJD ticket.
Editor of Odia daily Sanchar Damodar Rout is contesting from Balikuda
Erasama assembly seat on BJP Ticket and his son Sambit Routray is nominated by
BJD to contest Paradip assembly constituency. Hrudanand Mallick, founder of Sakala
Odia daily was an MLA from Dhamnagar Constituency. Later his son Manas Mallick
led this newspaper and also become an MLA. Presently his other son Sanjeev
Mallick has been nominated by BJD to contest from Bhadrak Assembly seat.
Several politicians have either bankrolled media outfits or have control
over the editorial content in many newspapers and news channels. It is open
secret that BJD MP from Balasore Rabindra Kumar Jena is closely associated with
News World Odisha and BJD MLA and former Minister Pranab Prakash Das is
often linked with MBC TV. Similarly, former minister and BJD MLA Sanjay
Das Burma owns Sarbasadharan news daily. Rabindra is contesting for
Balasore Lok Sabha Seat, while Pranab and Sanjay are contesting from Jajpur and
Brahmagiri Assembly seat, respectively.
There is nothing wrong in politicians publishing newspapers or launching
television channels or becoming editors. In fact history is witness to the
great work politicians like Mahatma Gandhi did in the journalism domain. Many
of our freedom fighters were actively associated with newspapers either as
journalist or writer or editor or publisher. What is of concern is the use of the press under one’s
control in furthering narrow selfish political agenda. What is more disturbing
is to feed misinformation, disinformation and thereby compromising truth.
Political parties or politicians owning media outfit is not bad per se. But when the entire spectrum is
crammed by media owned/managed by political parties or people with paradigm of
their own - then it becomes a problem. It becomes difficult to know the fact.
When lights of different colours are thrown on an object, it becomes difficult
to know the true colour. Then, objectivity becomes causality. Balance gets
distorted. And that is a big problem.
Half Century of Internet
On 7 April
Internet will turn 50. Credit for the initial concept
that developed into the World Wide Web is typically given to Leonard Kleinrock.
In 1961, he wrote about ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, in a paper
entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets." Kleinrock, along
with other innnovators such as J.C.R. Licklider, the first director of the
Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO), provided the backbone for the
ubiquitous stream of emails, media, Facebook postings and tweets that are now
shared online every day.
The
communication world has undergone a drastic change in the last half a century.
As communication became instant and scale became global- it impacted social
interaction at several levels and ways- never before experienced by mankind.
Social media made the situation more complex by providing an apparently
uber-democratic platform. In the social sphere, we have more 'kalarab' (noise) and less substance. As
the noise level rises and becomes shriller, substance recedes. To understand
the situation through an analogy: watch television
debate on any private channel, preferably Republic TV or India TV. You'll see
and hear people animatedly shouting at each other. You'll probably catch a word
or two. But you'll never get any understanding of the issue on which the debate
is on.
A true love story
A mosquito fell in
love with a hen. One day they kissed each other.
Hen died of malaria
and mosquito died of bird flu.
heart toucing na....
(Courtesy: Social
Media)
***
The author, a journalist turned media
academician lives in Central Odisha town of Dhenkanal. An anthology of his
weekly column Window Seat, published
in 2018 has been published as a book. Write to him to get a free e-copy.
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