“The fundamental objective of journalism is to serve the people with news, views, comments and information on matters of public interest in a fair, accurate, unbiased, sober and decent manner,” declares the Press Council of India’s ‘Norms of Journalist Conduct.’
As journalists and others observe the National Press Day on November 16, a day symbolising the existence of free and responsible press in India, two questions are being heard increasingly.
Whether such principles and ethics are being followed by practitioners and most importantly, whether Press Freedom is being undermined in India while contextualising the same with the case of Nagaland.
November 16 is the day on which the PCI in 1966 started functioning as a “moral watchdog” to ensure that the press not only maintains the expected high standards but is “not fettered by the influence or threats of any extraneous factors.”
Globally, the United Nations General Assembly has designated May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) or just World Press Day, among others, celebrating the fundamental principles of press freedom, remembering journalists and promoting the ‘need to stand up for a free, safe and independent media and protect journalism from new and existing forms of unwanted control, pressure and influence.’
The 2020 global theme, “Journalism without Fear or Favour,’ attributed to Adolph S Ochs, acutely find resonance. The founder of the modern New York Times had stated that the primary aim of the publications was to “give the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is parliamentary in good society...to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved...”
The media landscape, over the years, has been undergoing tremendous changes with varied mediums of disseminating news and the disruptive emergence of the internet and social media. However, as UNESCO underscored this year, the fundamental role of journalism in providing timely, useful and verified information to the public, holds constant.
The question of principles and ethics being followed by practitioners arise as a section of the media in the recent past has been increasingly faulted as being the torchbearers of the ruling dispensation- a pliant participant, instead of being the critical scrutiniser of powers that be to adequate accountability.
On the other end, India’s ranking in annual World Press Freedom Index (PFI) by the Reporters without Borders (RSF) has been constantly slipping over the years. In 2020, it fell down 2 places from its 2019 position to 142, continuing its downward trend since the first WPFI in 2002 where it was placed at 80. “With no murders of journalists in India in 2019, as against six in 2018, the security situation for the country’s media might seem, on the face of it, to have improved. However, there have been constant press freedom violations, including police violence against journalists, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials,” RSF noted in its 2020 report.
The situation in Nagaland is not as explicitly conspicuous but it has its own share of challenges. “Broadly speaking externalities like economic needs, political compulsion, socio-cultural and religious demands have narrowed press freedom in Nagaland,” Monalisa Changkija, Editor of Nagaland Page, told this paper in 2016 while discussing the media landscape in the State.
The situation, since then, has not changed much, while the economic and other challenges, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, have increase manifold, as explored in a three-part series by The Morung Express in August.
Falling advertisement and disruption in circulation are posing an existential threat to journalism and by extension its ability to be independent. Nagaland is no exception. While advertising revenues are dwindling, circulation is badly affected due to several challenges associated with the pandemic. In addition, failure or delay in clearing pending advertisement bills by the various governmental agencies, the bulk of revenues for local newspapers, is adding to the challenges.
On National Press Day, now more than ever, the press in Nagaland needs solidarity and support, particularly from the State Government through inclusion in rescue packages, subsidies or stimulus packages, as UNESCO suggested. It should start with the clearance of pending bills as well as timely payment advertisement bills. This would go a long way keeping them resilient and serve the vital public interest without any fear or favour.
