Litmus test for the media
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 29, 2010 -

The fourth estate in Manipur is not a notice board for anyone. Not for any State or non-State actors, not for any pressure groups or lobbies and certainly not a notice board for some gun wielding desperadoes whose sole aim is to extort money from the public under the guise of fighting for the lost 'sovereignty' of the land.

This message better sink into the heads of all those concerned, or else the media, which is seen as the lone institution, which at least has some credibility and is seen as above board by the common people and hence can echo the thoughts and sentiments of the people, too will be dragged to sup with those which flow with the current, unable to assert its identity.

During the last few years, Manipur has witnessed numerous times when Imphal based newspapers and the only private local news channel, ISTV had to close down with all the scribes staging dharnas or taking out a rally and submitting memoranda to the Government as well as trying to talk sense into some of these elements, who have come under the impression that the media should kow tow to their fancy and whims.

On June 27 and 28, no newspaper based in Imphal hit the news stand as the media persons had to close shop following personal threats to some members of the media fraternity, over the question of whether a press release issued by the group should be published or not.

This follows the earlier two days shut down of all newspaper houses in Imphal on June 13 and 14. That Manipur is in a conflict situation is a given, never mind the parameters laid down by the UN for a place to qualify as a conflict State and as journalists working in such an atmosphere, feeling the heat from either State or non-State actors is bound to be there.

In other words, it is part and parcel of our profession and should be taken as some professional hazards, which every profession too carries. However, there is something called 'legitimate professional hazards' and hazards posed by elements, who cannot think and see beyond their noses.

Ever since the guns started booming in the hills and vales of Manipur, the insurrection movement has seen its ups and downs. There have been cases of splits and factionalisms and fratricidal killings with some of its foremost leaders even going to the extent of accepting the Constitution after being released from jail.

As armed movements go, there will be phases of ups and downs in its process and caught in this never ending process are the general public, who have silently tolerated all the excesses committed by some of these armed groups as well as the security forces engaged in containing the armed movement.

The emergence of fly by night operators, crooks and plain cold blooded murderers who can kill for a few thousand bucks, by donning the mask of revolutionaries, can also be attributed as one of the many sub-developments of the insurrection movement or armed confrontations.

The people of Manipur, including the media have been at the receiving ends of many of these elements and it becomes more intense when splits and factionalism, obviously over financial matters come to the fore. Apart from this, what is particularly galling about the most recent incident is the time and the manner in which the media came under the threats of the guns and bombs from these elements, when the credibility and ethics of Imphal based newspapers have been not only been questioned but also torn to shreds, by the proponents of the Greater Lim demand.

Here is a far greater and critical issue at hand, in the face of the growing demand for the creation of a Greater Nagaland at the cost of States like Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, when every true sons of the soil should be closely studying and monitoring the tones of the NSCN (IM) and the double talks of New Delhi.

However such discourses have had to be blacked out by some of these elements, who cannot see beyond their noses while at the same time espousing some patriotic cause or raising some non-sensical slogans.

As we have mentioned before, there are Nakli revolutionaries in abundance in Manipur and it is time for all to put their heads together and see how these elements or anti-social elements can be neutralised and told in no uncertain terms that they have no business to play with people's lives for issues, which are strictly internal to them and do not concern the interest of the people or the State.

The time has also come for the media in Manipur, especially the Imphal based media houses, to introspect and see if there are any loopholes. However ugly or distasteful it is, we have to admit that there have been instances when some media personnel have brought disrepute to the profession of journalism.

Let's fight the external forces and at the same time, let's also clean our stable. Or else, no matter how loud the media here may shout or write about human rights abuses, atrocities of the security forces and non-State actors, corruption at the highest level of the Government, as well as the need to ensure the territorial integrity of the State and the game that Delhi resorts to now and then will find no takers in the international fora, which has rightly been described as a global village today.

For a media to be taken seriously and treated with the respect it demands, we need to take a stand and not bow down to the diktats of each and every single pressure group, of which there are too many to count in Manipur. This is the litmus test for the media in the State.