Witoubou Newmai
In an honest retrospection on journalism in Nagaland, it is not only illuminating and entertaining but also useful to find out where we stood in the 1990s. The situation created by the infancy of the profession and public ignorance, as was in other states of the Northeast then, was hilarious.
But today, journalists in Nagaland have risen to meet the challenges of social intricacies even though the "crown still goes to those who get the scoops,” in the words of veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar.
You can get the real state of yester-years’ journalism if you come to know that the dead body of a drug addict or two quarrelsome rickshaw wallas could find a secure spot on the front page of local newspapers. The extreme ignorance of the public was also indicated when an announcer in a programme expressed the gratitude of their village to the "Press Releases (the announcer meant press people) who have come all the way from Dimapur to our village to join us". The media card of the village programme printed in bold "PRESS RELEASES" confirmed that it was not just a case of slip of tongue of the programme announcer. Innocence also reared its head when a reader is said to have paid Rs 100 for a copy of a newspaper to a hawker. The reader was elated on seeing his write-up in the newspaper, according to the hawker, who later informed us about the incident.
Amid the celebrations of innocence and ignorance, the situation was a living hell for journalists. For instance, the media remained silent when a politician threatened to bring a dozen bulldozers to bulldoze a media house for not front-paging the photograph of a shop inauguration where he did the ribbon cutting. Around the same time, a junior police officer on frisking duty examining press ID cards found it hard to differentiate the press/media from the printing press.
Those were the days where a field reporter was also a sub-editor and a receptionist dealing with advertisements and press releases. Events of sports and issues of environment were given the cold shoulder then.
Today, things have changed tremendously. The raging pursuit of journalists in Nagaland, both in terms of specific and broad reach, deserves celebration and support. Journalists in the state have produced much admired impact on society. However, this is not to suggest that maturity of the profession in the state has reached its desired mark. Our slow growing society has also been one of the impediments to the growth of the profession.
10 years from now, we will relish looking back and find today's situation quite entertaining where press releases from various organisations govern newspaper pages. What would amuse us more after 10 years would be these usual group photos of programme organisers, shop inauguration, little known outfits/unions desperately in need of publicity making the most out of somebody's demise with condolence messages or condemnations.
An important argument advanced here is whether our society will understand us if we do not wait for another 10 years for this foreseen entertainment. Our society, and journalism, needs to grow with time.
