When we live with so many social media outlets, laws should be passed, not to stifle it but to ensure that lawmakers are careful in their reckless misuse of power and position
First, let me be clear – I was not at the program where the social welfare minister allegedly hurled abuse at the journalists, but since several top-notch papers have printed the news, one has to accept that something untoward happened.
As reports state, the minister used indecorous language to address the members of the press present and used a hectoring tone to say he will see how far the media can go once the national broadcast policy is implemented to its full extent. We are told, faced with the broadside, journalists walked out in protest.
The national broadcast policy has become a hotly-debated item with the media community voicing almost unanimously that instead of making the media more responsible, this is aimed at muzzling. And when a public representative in an open program allegedly threatens to curb media freedom, a question is likely to arise as to why there is so much fervour from the authority to have such a policy passed.
In the UK, the British government took a very firm stance holding the Leveson Inquiry after a phone-hacking scandal revealed extensive media-bugging into the lives of citizens in total disregard for their right to privacy.
The hacking scandal saw the News of the World shut down with top media men facing imprisonment for their collusion in the whole process. However, the move by the British government to rein in on the press was mainly to safeguard the lives of the common person from unethical transgression.
The British media, though warned, has not been barred from reporting on social anomalies, especially those that hamper smooth operation of civic life.
In Bangladesh, we have not reached the level where, desperate to add new twists to a news item, values are totally banished. I am not saying the entire media apparatus is spotless, but there is no denying that media which plays along the tunes of a government is hardly a free press integral to a democratic system.
Regulating the press is actually a very vague term because unless specifics are mentioned, like private phones cannot be bugged or pictures of victims of sexual assault must never be printed, laws using language deceptively or euphemistically can be misused.
Hypothetically speaking, let’s assume that the freedom of the press is slashed considerably in the days to come with reports of misdeeds at high places becoming rare. Tell me this, how will stringent laws curb the voice of the citizen journalist?
Somewhere, some conscious person is always alert to bring out a nefarious act into the open. How can they be stopped? Mass arrests, maybe? The much condemned Argentine regime of the 70s, when no kind of dissent or criticism was tolerated, comes to mind.
When we live with so many social media outlets, laws should be passed, not to stifle it but to ensure that lawmakers are careful in their reckless misuse of power and position.
Let’s bring one recent incident back under the limelight – a police officer, who refused to bow down in front of political pressure to leave a polling station for false voting and, therefore, received a torrent of abuse from a lawmaker.
When the news came out in the open, thanks to a TV channel, there was mass public support for the officer who had brought some pride to the uniform, which, over the years, had become tainted by brazen political exploitation.
The sad part is, not a single politician stood up to take the side of the law enforcer. No one said in public gatherings that this is the sort of lawmaker the government wishes to promote.
Instead, there was uneasy silence from the side of the authority seeing a totally shameless practice come out in the open. Also, was the media channel thanked or lauded for exposing attempts at the grass-roots level voting fraud? I doubt it.
The police officer in question has perhaps learnt that it would be better to remain silent in the future and let Goliath carry on. David can turn into a deferential disciple. Such transformations have become an art form here.
I have said earlier – media as an institution is also replete with opportunists who use the press privileges to make a fast buck or attain some material possessions. Not pointing any fingers, but there are plenty of media personalities who have pledged their loyalty to one regime or the other in return of position and power.
During the autocratic rule, several journalists cleverly took to the task to glorifying the regime’s achievements. Some were sent abroad as envoys, and others got land plus special patronage. The trend, I can say confidently, has thrived over the years.
As realists, we know very well, every government will have cronies in the media. After all, propaganda is more powerful than flaunting weapons or exerting muscle force. The slow but insidious indoctrination is safer because fear may bring submission, never long time hypnotic submission.
Obviously, there is no limit to fawning by a media outlet towards a government in power – the more the better! Though, in that format, media will only be a castrated fourth estate. Naturally, no policy is needed in controlling acquiescence.
Hirok Rajar Deshe, a Satyajit Ray movie, shows an imaginary land where everyone is brainwashed into indulging in panegyric rhetoric. No opposition and all praise, but the rule of human civilisation states – no situation of perceived total control is forever.
In real-life politics, that means – no matter how strong the grip, in the natural flow of events, change will come. Before the media is suppressed or words like khobish is used at pressmen at public programs, a look at the lessons of the past is advised.
Unscrupulous practices by the media must be minimised. A media regulatory policy is also essential while press monitoring has to be the prerogative of an apolitical, independent body run by outspoken civil society members, not by those whose minds are made in the Moshtishko Prokkhalon Jontro (brainwashing instrument) as used by Hirok Raja.
Source: Dhaka Tribune