NEW DELHI: The Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies' (VIPS) three day annual festival Spandan, was kicked into action with the opening event 'Media Panchayat' on Thursday. The event, sponsored by The Citizen, was centred on a discussion involving eminent journalists who deliberated on the problems afflicting the media world today. The informative discussion was interspersed with a rich bouquet of anecdotes that the panelists had amassed during their long professional journey.

The talk was moderated by eminent journalist Seema Mustafa with the trio of Satish Jacob, Pamela Philipose, and Hartosh Singh Bal forming the illustrious panel. The panel argued under the rubric "Media as Fourth Estate", as Satish Jacob, earlier with BBC, set the tone and importance of the discussion right by quoting Edmund Burke, "yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all," who said this while referring to the Reporter's gallery and thus coining the term.

After telling the audience what drove them to the field of journalism, the panelists moved toward the core of the discussion, ie its media's role today. Mustafa asked a range of questions pertaining to the changing ownership pattern in media, its role in society, and the declining tribe of the "Editors". The panelists gave their views about these questions in their capacity of being media insiders for many decades.

"When I worked with BBC, even there used to be attempts at killing a story. The decree used to move from chairman onward, then to DG and finally to the editor. But editors used to have faith in their reporters then, the reporter used to be asked whether he believed in the story, and if he said yes then there was no stopping," recollected Jacob, as he rued how editors find the issues of securing funding and being accountable to the owners more pressing than the editing today.

Hartosh Singh Bal, currently the political editor of Caravan magazine, held up the instance of Newshour as the herald of decay in standards of journalism. Referring to Arnab Goswami, the anchor of that show, Bal said that the content of Goswami's show is aimed towards getting as many eyeballs as he can. "They keep saying that "tweets are continuously coming", as if it is one of the standard of good reporting" Philipose, a leading columnist and formerly editor-in-chief of the Women’s Feature Service, said supporting the point further. Bal recounted an incident to elaborate. "On one episode of Newshour, there was a Pakistani guest who Goswami got into an argument with. This particular guest was quick to agree with Goswami. At the end of the show, the producers got into trouble. "I don't pay these *****'s to come agree with me," Goswami thundered." "It's carefully packaged content that caters to what the viewer wants to see and hear... not news," said Bal.

Jacob agreed with the above. Recounting the Dadri lynching, Jacob pointed to the fact that the media was more interested in presenting the murder as a "cow murder," even though a man was killed based on a rumour.

The panelists, further discussed allied issues like objectivity in journalism and the problems of paid news. Mustafa refuted the concept of "objectivity" in journalism as being of any cardinal importance. "All we were told was to go out and report from the spot. Getting facts right is the most important. We were never taught this 'objectivity' rule by anyone ever. It's the credo of those who are never objective themselves," she said, before following it with the caveat that, "but of course, you need to know the field before you start questioning it."

"No one can be objective," Bal agreed. "I think integrity is where it's at." "Journalism is a craft. It takes years to develop and one of the key components is to have a problem with authority," Bal said. "If you're the kind of person who sits in class and diligently takes notes, not questioning a word your teachers/professors say, you are not going to be a good journalist. To be a good journalist you have to question, you have to have a problem with authority." An example that was offered by the panel was a story that appeared in the media relating to a top businessman's son. The son, it seemed, had taken out an expensive sports car at 2 AM one night, injuring several people on the road in an accident. "The story that eventually came out was that the driver took out the car. Who gives a driver their most expensive car for a joyride at 2 am? The story was run without journalists asking the basic critical questions that are part of the craft," the panel said.

Philipose reiterated the importance of passion in journalism. "You have to be a passionate journalist to be a good journalist" she said, clarifying that passion did not refer to a bias, but to the ability and willingness to get all sides of the story, cross-check facts and sources, and present the picture as one saw it, not as one wanted it to be. Philipose recalled that passion was one of the reasons she wanted to become a journalist in the first place, albeit a romanticised and idealised version of it. “We all thought India could be this great country, and that we as journalists would have a role to play in that,” she recalled.

Philipose also talked about the absence of women from journalism. Women reporters and editors, but also women sources. Philipose was the editor-in-chief Feature Service, a news syndication service that sought to address this gap by covering women exclusively.

Mustafa then asked the panelists about online media. The discussion centred on the fact that the online space, which seems to be entirely free, is anything but. Net neutrality was evoked, with the recent controversy relating to Mark Zuckerberg's internet.org being talked about at length.

At the end of the panel discussion, questions were opened up to the audience. A range of interesting and engaging questions were asked. "Should media channels declare ownership?" asked one student. "What about citizen journalism? Is it the way forward?" was another question. "Is print journalism dead?" several people wanted to know.

The panel answered all the questions and ended with words of advice for the students. They reiterated that their intention was not to give a negative picture, but a realistic analysis of journalism and the media space in India today, with the caveat that there is a lot of potential and scope for growth. It's always a good time to become a journalist!


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VISHAL NARAYAN