Media can empower masses

Thoudam Imomacha Singh *

The media is said to be one of the pillars of modern democracy comprising the Legislature, the Executive, the Judiciary and the Fourth Estate i.e the Press. However, it is disheartening to learn about the Media Houses in the state reprimanding some sections of the people taking part in the ILPS upheaval for their haughtiness. Consequent to that, no print media or private broadcast services in Manipur could see the light of the day on Thursday, the 6th of August 2015 - a dark day, because the people remained uninformed despite the fact that information surrounds them.

Thanks to the uprightness and solidarity of the All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) and other media outfits for their timely assertion against the gag on media. The media being a political institution itself, it empowers the people in a democracy. We are all aware that any text-book on politics acknowledges the freedom of the press as the nucleus of a democracy .The press is always steadfast against the arbitrariness of a government or any other authority. One of the Himalayan responsibilities of the press is to safeguard the rights of the people guaranteed in our constitution.

One of the foremost duties of the press is to acquire the earliest and most accurate information of the events of anytime and effectively make them the common assets of the nation. A correct and straight forward opinion is that the duty of the press owes to truth and the public good. It is from this notion that the role of the press in later years became checkmate to wrong doers.

There are stunning examples of how the newspapers acted in various countries including our own in the expose of skullduggery in politics and governance. Of all times , in the political spectrum of the world the Watergate episode was an unprecedented political expose initiated by investigative journalism a new and attractive branch of mainstream journalism of the world in those days.

Newspaper, radio and television also take an important role in the sphere of entertainment world. Nowadays, sport, film and fashion also occupy a considerable amount of media space. On the one hand the media also feed our curiosity about the foibles and follies of the rich and the powerful .On top of this all, the media are a powerful educative device. As we all know that public opinion is moulded not only by persons with big names and in high positions in the media.

Every newspaper reporter, every desk man in a newspaper establishment also influence public opinion in his own way through his sincerity and his concern for the public good. What is news? The same question is being asked repeatedly. Various answers have also been given. A single satisfactory answer is yet to receive .

However, according to the opinion of some experienced journalist there is nothing that cannot be made an interesting news when it is prepared with skill and precision .It is also said that nothing is news until and unless it has been reported , no matter when that had take place. It is said that journalism is not a search for the truth. Journalism is and must be a search for the relative truths only that keep us sane in the world.

Freedom of the press is a means to an end and not an end in itself. It is also the right of the people to know and enjoy the benefits of a free Press that the government must take the responsibility to protect.

Freedom of the Press is to be guarded as an inalienable right of the people in a free society. It carries with the freedom and the responsibility to discuss questions and challenge the actions and utterances of governments and of public and private institutions. A vibrant Press is always the essence of a colorful democracy.