Misleading headlines, crass sensationalism : Time to pull up our socks
- Sangai Express Editorial :: November 22 , 2013 -

There is a reason why the death of a woman Constable of the Central Industrial Security Force occupied prime space in all the Imphal based dailies on November 21.

It was the death of a woman Constable, due to a bullet injury, but it is this and more.

The late Constable received the bullet injury inside the high security bungalow of the Chief Minister, posted there as part of the security arrangements of the Chief Minister.

May her soul rest in peace. This however is besides the point. What is a matter of concern are the seemingly misleading headlines given to the story, save for one or two newspapers.

A scan of the headlines of the story and carried in the November 21 edition of almost all the Imphal based dailies seemed to suggest that she was shot dead.

Shot dead.

Two words, which more or less imply that there was an attacker. This is not all.

Almost all the headlines of the story, including The Sangai Express, seemed to suggest that the lady Constable died inside the CM’s bungalow, while the accompanying story clearly mentioned that she succumbed to the bullet injury at JNIMS hospital.

Time for the media houses, including The Sangai Express to pull up their socks and give headlines or captions, which do not run contrary to the story that follows.

With Imphal West police registering a case of unnatural death and launching an investigation, it would be premature to jump the gun and come to a conclusion.

Yet at the same time, this particular incident should be a reminder to all those engaged in the profession of journalism to read the fine lines and give headlines or captions which do not veer away from the story that follows. It is a two way lane.

No newspaper would want to be caught in the rut of coming out with dull, insipid and lifeless captions or headlines yet at the same time crass sensationalism is a NO NO, at least to The Sangai Express.

The challenge then is to make headlines or captions catchy without taking recourse to sensationalism.

The dividing line is no doubt thin and being able to identify this dividing line is what separates a responsible newspaper from the ones willing to go to any extent to play to the gallery and earn brownie points.

Something like politicians taking recourse to hate speech to inflame passions.

Out of bounds of the CCTV coverage is the term used by this paper to describe the room where the lady Constable was found with the bullet wound. This again has been found to be misleading.

Further probes have revealed that the spot is within the purview of the CCTV cameras installed inside the Chief Minister’s bungalow. However there is a purdah which blocks the view on the CCTV, a purdah put up to provide a certain degree of privacy to women visitors.

This is one point that was overlooked.

The comments here may sound like something coming from a holy cow and The Sangai Express is not in a position to say anything for the others, but despite the rapid stride made in the field of journalism in the last 10/15 years in Manipur, we still have a long way to go.

News analysis, the quality of articles, investigative reporting, reporting on science and technology and the fine arts and culture, rural reporting etc are all subjects where we have fallen short.

Lack of expertise is one primary factor coupled with lack of man power.

The Sangai Express will not shy away from admitting that we still need to put up our performance, not one or two, but several notches higher to fit the bill of the fourth estate in a democracy.

Not an easy task, certainly, but as we have repeated on more than one occasion, there are more peaks to be scaled and the peaks include cutting edge professionalism and more commitment.

In a way it a tragedy that the death of a lady Constable, with a bright future ahead of her, has constrained us to look inwards and study where we exactly stand as professionals.

May her soul rest in peace.