The case of 'Meitei media'
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 05, 2023 -

THE report of the fact-finding mission of the Editors' Guild of India (EGI) on media's reportage of the ethnic violence in Manipur, which concludes that journalists of Manipur wrote "one-sided reports" on the current humanitarian crisis between the Meitei and the Kuki communities, has obviously been not taken lightly by Editors' Guild Manipur (EGM) and All Manipur Working journalists' Union (AMWjU).

Apart from asserting that the media in Manipur, which is essentially based in Imphal got transformed into "Meitei-media" during the conflict, the report of the fact-finding mission which was carried out from August 7 to 10 and released on September 2, maintained that with the internet service suspended and communication and transport in disarray, media in Manipur had to rely almost entirely on the narrative of the state government and the narrative under the dispensation of Chief Minister N. Biren Singh became a narrow ethnic one playing up to the biases of the majority Meitei community.

Furthermore, the report of the fact-finding mission which was reportedly taken up by EGI after receiving several representations including a written complaint from the Indian Army's 3rd Corps headquarters citing specific examples of the media in Manipur suggesting that it may be playing "a major role in arousing passion and not letting sustainable peace to come in", said that "Meitei media became a party to the vilification of the security forces, especially the Assam Rifles and it failed in its duty by constant propaganda against the Assam Rifles, claiming that it was only purveying the views of the public. It failed to verify the facts, weigh them and then use them in its reportage".

Denouncing the damning report of the EGI's fact finding mission, which has painted such a poor picture of the working of media and journalists in Manipur, Editors' Guild Manipur (EGM) and All Manipur Working journalists' Union (AMWJU) have already come out with a joint statement rubbishing what they described as the EGI's-motivated allegations based on hearsay.

Along with issuing a point-by-point clarification to the EGI's allegations, the two apex bodies of journalists in Manipur have also warned of slapping a defamation suit in case EGI failed to come up with a clarification in view of the grave misrepresentations of the Imphal-based journalist community in the report of its fact-finding mission.

We are not going to go into details of the point-by-point clarification made by EGM and AMWJU to the EGI's allegations here as the same had already been flashed for all to see, read and dissect,
but while we are waiting to see, read and dissect the response of EGI to its alleged motivated allegations based on hearsay,
we can vouch that the fact-finding team of the EGI,
which had sought donation from the public and organisations prior to embarking on its mission,
has done a pretty shoddy job in the endless campaign of trying to further the narrative of minority Kuki community being subjected to
"a systematic ethnic cleansing" by the majority Meitei community
by showing the photo of a building on fire with smoke ballooning and
captioning it as a Kuki house set on fire by the marauding Meitei mobs
when it is actually the building of the Forest Office at Maultam in Churachandpur district
which was torched by the Kuki people themselves right in the middle of the supposed peaceful ATSUM-sponsored Tribal Solidarity March on May 3 last.

Interestingly, the fact-finding team of ECI comprising veteran journalists Seema Guha/Sanjay Kapoor and Bharat Bhushan has given the credit of the photo to the news agency, ANI. That's the reality of fact-finding mission of EGI and its "unbiased' report, take it or leave it, the freedom is yours.