CHENNAI: When other countries had revolutions, one authority fought another, but India’s freedom struggle has the unique distinction of germinating from its people, taking a bottom-up approach, said columnist and chartered accountant S Gurumurthy. He was speaking at the Colloquy on Media and Social Responsibility held at the DG Vaishnav College in Arumbakkam on Friday.
Years after the freedom struggle and Emergency, the freedom that the media enjoys today was anarchic and irresponsible, he said. Referring to the outrage when a Tamil writer was booked for his novel that centred around a practice in Tiruchengode that offended a section of the population, Gurumurthy said that the media had rallied around the author, paying no heed to the beliefs of the society.
“The beliefs of the common man were thwarted. If you oppose those with power, they will be able to fight back. But the common man who has no voice cannot fight you,” he said. He added that the concept of ‘society’, as it existed in India, was not found in other countries. However, the media today pays no respect to this society and takes it upon itself to destroy this concept, he said. According to him, the media should instead be a knowledge exchange mechanism, promoting social learning.
Gurumurthy said that his journey across several industrial clusters in the country helped change and shape his ideas about the country and the society. “The society became an open air university for me,” he pointed out. Bringing in the perspective of someone who owns an English daily, Manoj Kumar Sonthalia, Chairman of The New Indian Express, said it was important for media houses to take sides, even if they have to pay a price for it.
Prem Panicker, Founder-Editor of peepli.org, said the lack of will to protest in the face of fake news, sexism and hate speech, could pave the way for media violations. “We should remember that silence is consent. Media houses earn their money from followers and it is the job of its followers to question it. If the media’s job is to question authority and power, it is the job of the people to question the media,” he said.
Padmaja Shaw, retired professor, Osmania University, said: “It’s time we question the idea of media as the fourth leg. The media should step outside the three-legged nexus and look at itself as an independent entity.”