A Newspaper Is Always A Weapon, In Someone’s Hands | UPSC Mains Essay Preparation PDF Download

A Newspaper Is Always A Weapon

In Someone’s Hands

structure

(1) Opening    —    Definition of newspaper

—    Fourth estate

(2) Body    —    Editorials, columns have personal bias.

—    Healthy discussion and diverse opinions are welcome if not affected by extraneous considerations, Editors may influence News-paper’s line of thinking.

—    Pressures and pulls make newspapers a weapon in someone’s hand.

—    Pressure from administration, concessional newsprint, rules and regulations.

—    Big advertisers and businessmen. Biggest sources of revenue to newspapers. Financial estimates and annual reports’ analysis may be biased. Affects potential investors.

—    Favours to editors and reporters, Government bungalows, gifts, free trips etc.

—    Pressure from owners.

(3) Closing    —    Lack of upright journalists.

—    Watch dog status being compromised.

By a definition given in The Spectator, a British newspaper, the chief role of a newspaper is to spread intelligence. Intelligence may be defined as information, news, especially that related to important events. The importance of newspapers cannot be underestimated in a democracy. They act as watch dog for the people. They are responsible for enlightening the people about various events and their importance. The role that a newspaper plays as an educator for the people makes it one of the important pillars supporting the superstructure of democracy. That is why press is called the fourth estate along with legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

Newspaper not only informs people about events by reporting them as news but also analyses news and presents it as editorials, comments and lead articles. These analyses are carried by editors and columnists. What they present is their own view point and the way they judge an event, a happening etc. So obviously, personal bias comes in them. Even in the selection, presentations and interpretation of news, a certain bias may crop in. In fact, a newspaper’s line of thinking is nothing but the editor’s line of thinking. However, this bias is not harmful as long as the objective of the editor or the columnist remains unmotivated by extraneous considerations. For interpreting a fact that is news, a number of view points can be given and there is nothing wrong in a healthy discussion. However, the interpretation and analysis should be done objectively and rationally. The aims should be disseminating knowledge and not propaganda. However, due to various types of pressures and pulls, we find that objectivity and rationality is being compromised by the newspapers and instead they are appearing to become pawns in big games of money and power. This is the reason why newspapers are called weapons in somebody’s hands. It will be of interest to examine some of these pressures and pulls.

 The biggest pressure that newspapers face today is the pressure from the administration. In India, the administration holds the life line of press by supplying them with concessional newsprint. Also, government notices, circulars and advertisements are important sources of revenue for a newspaper. The administration uses this relation to pressurise newspapers not to print the misdeeds, abuse of power and authority by it. Use of various rules and regulations is made both in peace time and troubled times to harass the newspapers. The newspapers are one of the most important means of creating public opinion and the administration tries to manipulate newspapers to create favourable public opinion.

Another source of pulls and pressures is the big advertisers and businessmen. They are the biggest source of revenue to the newspapers without which they cannot even run. So, in this way, they are the most important guarantors of newspaper’s independence. However, when they try to misuse their clout by pressurising newspapers into publishing favourable reports and hiding their misendeavours and misdeeds, they become a challenge to the integrity of the newspapers. Especially when potential investors read now-a-days company’s annual reports and financial estimates and take their decisions on that basis, a report in the newspaper may make or mar a company’s fortune. So, newspapers may be forced by big businessmen in distorting the facts by their interpretation and explanation.

Another subtle way of influencing the newspapers is by doing favours to the reporters and editors. The enticements in the form of movie or circus tickets, railways or bus passes, free tours and trips, invitation to lavish parties and outings etc. are very common. Expensive gifts are showered on the reporters and in extreme cases even monetary benefits may be given. Obviously, the giver expects a good return in the form of an excellent review, a favourable report or large coverage of his deeds. In such cases, any wrong doing or misdeeds are easily over-looked. The story of Pakistan’s embassy gifting expensive items to foreign and Indian journalists and organising free trips for them is only a sad reminder of the sorry state of affairs. In fact, leave aside ethics and morality, the journalists are only too willing to grant favours to their‘patrons’.

The editors are influenced by offering them spacious bungalows and other facilities by the government. They may be made part of a delegation going on a foreign trip. They may be made chairman or member of some national or 

international fora. Their business interests if they have one are protected by the government. Now-a-days, the situation has come to such a point that even awards are used as a bait and favoured ones are rewarded. So much so that a self respecting and ethics loving journalist considers it a shame to be considered for a award. Mr. Nikhil Chakravorty had declined Padma Shree on the same grounds. But how many such upright journalists do we find  today. The profession, today, unfortunately, is full of self seeking people.

Another challenge to the integrity of a newspaper is the pressure from owners. Many people start a newspaper today to act as a propaganda device and also as a pressure device to blackmail and malign their opponents. Such newspapers put a slur upon the noble profession of journalism. They become mouth pieces for their owners and present highly biased and coloured news. The purpose is not educating people but misguiding them to protect their owner’s business and political interests. The  newspapers  which were supposed to be educator of masses, protector of their liberties and a safety valve against corruption and abuse of power appear to have been hijacked by the very forces they seek to oppose. Instead of becoming watch dog for the common man they have become distorted by various internal and external factors.