The lessons our media could learn from the fiasco of the Barun Kashyap story
There was shock
and outrage everywhere as 24 year old production executive Barun Kashyap posted
his harrowing experience of being subjected to harassment and humiliation at
the hands of self-proclaimed cow protectors for merely being in possession of a
bag made of cow hide. It was equally appalling that is occurred in Mumbai, a
city that prides itself for being multi-cultural and diverse. This is a city that
welcomes thousands of people every day from all over the world and assimilates
them. Was this very city now unsafe for a young man travelling by public
transport in broad daylight? Was this
incident the beginning of a dangerous trend of growing ‘intolerance?’
The news media covered
this news story widely and aggressively. The Maharashtra government swiftly got into
action with CM Devendra Fadnavis promising the citizens of Mumbai that the miscreants
would not be spared. A police investigation was summarily initiated, during which
glaring inconsistencies emerged between Kashyap’s account and CCTV camera
footage from the area. Kashyap had claimed that his rickshaw was stopped near a
temple and that three men with red tilaks had aggressively interrogated him,
but the CCTV camera footage showed that his ride was uninterrupted. Finally upon
questioning Kashyap confessed to his falsehood claiming he did it owing to his hatred of Hindus and
intentions to spark communal tension. There are reports that Kashyap had sought assistance from an AAP member and
had stayed with the AAP member for two days following the incident.
The rise of social media
is an absolute bane to society. It has given every individual a voice to be
able to highlight issues that matter and has helped steer the media in the
direction of a story that may have otherwise been ignored. While social media
can be the starting point for a story, it emphatically cannot be a trusted source
to carry a story without doing due diligence. A very basic lesson one learns in
life is to never form an opinion based on only one side’s version of any event.
The same applied to journalism, every news organization carrying the story
should have first visited the location where the incident allegedly occurred
and verified the authenticity of the incident. Most importantly the individual
who posted the incident should have been subjected to questions to find
potential loopholes. There should have been a detailed background check about
the individual perhaps that may have shed light on his motivation. The CCTV
footage of the incident should have been acquired owing to the nature of story
that could possibly lead to communal tension. But nothing of the kind occurred here. Almost
none of the news items mentioned Kashyap’s interactions with an AAP leader. This is very serious of a political leader is found supporting an invididual intending to spread communal disharmony.
Clearly Kashyap by his own
admission is a deeply malicious, prejudiced and hateful individual who intended
to cause serious harm to the city he had lived and earned a living in. Also, had he written the same account as a
short story, he would have been lauded at literary fests for showing the real
and ugly side of Hindutva. Had his account been made into a movie, the critics
would have raved and awards would have been secured. But alas Kashyap’s lie was
caught.
But this story has once
again has exposed our media for being sloppy and possibly agenda driven. It is
no secret that most in the media masquerading as journalists and commentators
share his ideology. When they read of a narrative such as this, it is almost
god sent and they put it out there without verifying because the want it to be
true. To be fair, the falsehood of Kashyap’s narrative was widely reported but
there was almost no retraction or apology for this gross case of misreporting. But
that does not excuse the fact that this story should never have found its place
in any reputable newspaper or news website. Make a mistake in any other field
and there are penalties, so why does out media get away with it. What should be
the penalty for those news organizations that carried Barun’s allegations with
absolute certitude and without any verification?
We have seen
journalists of seemingly impeccable reputation such as Judith Miller, Dan Rather and Brian Williams being compelled to quit
their job for propagating falsehoods. When Fared Zakaria was found guilty of
plagiarism, he was suspended from CNN and was compelled to apologize upon his
return. We did see journalists resign after the Essar controversy. But we also see journalists involved in the Radia
Tapes controversy continue to operate with impunity. We see no remedial action
taken when misreporting occurs. At best we there is an apology on an inner page
for a fabricated story carried on the front page.
Do we have
any viable solutions in the event of a report being factually incorrect such
that it has the potential to cause unrest or harm the reputation of a person?
We have courts where the affected parties can file defamation suits but court
cases take a great time by the times the results are out the public has
forgotten and the damage had been done.
The only other solution to this is regulation. An independent regulatory
committee comprising of eminent journalists, educationists, litterateurs and
lawyers must be setup with an intention to promote and uphold the highest
professional standards of journalism. The job of this committee will be to
install preventive controls such as guidelines to minimize the possibility of
misreporting, to install corrective controls issuance rules of immediate
retraction and prescribing penalties, to install protective controls shield
news organizations from being subjected to political pressure and to install detective
controls a watchdog that constantly fact checks stories propagated and provides
a mechanism for the average citizen to launch complains about erroneous
reporting as well. It is important that the body be non-governmental,
apolitical and most importantly empowered. This has be followed by a swift,
fair, transparent and independent investigation where both sides of the
argument are heard. There must to be penalties when guilt is established. In UK
there are bodies such as the Independent Press
Standards Organisation or OfCom who perform that very
function with independence and effectiveness. We do have the Press Council of India but it needs to be empowered and its reach needs
to be deepened into the organizations of news house.
Cynics will
argue that the committee may be misused to muzzle free speech. That is why it
has to comprise of people of eminence with strict guidelines and rules. With
time, effort and discipline, the committee can be a great success and we can
have a free but fair media that is required reports strictly based on
undisputed facts and in the event of error is compelled to apologize and
retract.
The other
choice is leave matters as is and risk the possibility of another serious case of
misreporting that may have such grave consequences that our inactions now will
as morally inexcusable as the
misreporting itself.
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