A hard critical look inwards : Miles and miles to walk
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 12 , 2014 -

Time for the media, especially the Imphal based media houses, to introspect.

The Indian Express did it while none of the newspapers in Manipur managed to do it-that is exposing the systematic booth rigging at Sinakeithel area in Ukhrul district in the first phase of the polling in the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency on April 9.

While the media here by and large went about with the business of covering the polling routinely, the Imphal based correspondent of The Indian Express went about with the business of uncovering how the election was rigged in certain parts of Ukhrul district, in favour of the NPF candidate.

The report, which is available on the website of The Indian Express describes in vivid detail how the election was rigged at Sinakeithel area.

The Sangai Express cannot speak for the others, but it is definitely a damning statement on how far we have to go to match up with the calling of journalism.

Limited resources and lack of man power are obviously one of the factors, but to come up with this answer everytime there is a miss, would amount to shirking our responsibilities and failing to admit to our weaknesses.

So while The Indian Express came out with a story, that truly reflected the manner in which election in the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency was conducted, we were merely satisfied with getting routine stuff and of course relying on the inputs from the election office.

The lack of imagination and ideas to go deeper than merely reporting on how many turned up to vote was palpably clear.

It was something which should have been anticipated, given the feelers that we received as well as in the backdrop of the abduction and subsequent release of former Minister and MLA from Chingai AC, Dr Khashim Ruivah and the polling agent of the BJP in Senapati on the ground that they were actively canvassing for the BJP.

The Sangai Express will not hesitate to say that this is where we have failed our readers.

The media is here not only to disseminate information which are official and pass comments on critical issues facing the State and the people but also conduct its own course of investigation, walk the extra mile and remove the outer peels to go to the core of the story.

This is not an exercise in self cruxification nor berating ourselves for having missed out on something big, but to admit to our shortcomings and see how things can be improved.

Live up to the true spirit of journalism. We have already questioned how free and fair was the election to the Outer Parliamentary Constituency and now with the damning report coming from The Indian Express the validity of the question that was raised earlier here in this column will stand the test of time.

It is here that we can take a certain degree of comfort, but this is not the time to sit back and relax.

There are lots of grounds to be covered and while it will certainly take time to catch up with the others, this should be no reason why that extra efforts should not be put in.

Time to pull up our socks and give more sting and cutting edge excellence to our stories.

More professionalism, more commitment and of course learning to keep to our ears to the ground.

For the moment, we did miss out on something which should not have been missed, but a lesson has been learnt and we will try to move in the right direction.