“This is what fake news is doing to us today. It controls our behaviour in such a way that we become robots. We cease to be citizens, individuals capable of common sense and reason. Fake news keeps us awake at nights; we see people being beaten up, even killed due to it. We let it all happen.”
These are the words of Ravish Kumar from a chapter of his new book “The Free Voice”.
Interestingly, he starts this chapter based on fake news by stating what happened during the 2017 Gujarat elections. While delivering a speech at Palanpur, PM Modi fiercely said that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Vice President Hamid Ansari held a secret meeting with the high commissioner of Pakistan and Pakistan’s former foreign minister at Mani Shankar’s house. He further added that the former director general of Pakistan army Arshad Rafiq said that the election of Ahmed Patel as the chief minister of Gujarat should be supported. Ravish Kumar writes that this statement is a classic example of fake news, and it should be taught in mass communication classrooms.
The PM had greatly twisted the facts about this meeting, but almost the entire national media reported it. So, when the order to suspend any accredited journalist who reports or propagates fake news was released, the question arose as to whether anyone would be left to cover government proceedings?
On the night of April 2, 2018, when the television media was discussing the Dalit protests, under their high pitched discussions, the Union Information & Broadcasting ministry silently released this order. This was very similar to what happened a few months ago in Rajasthan. The Government of Rajasthan had promulgated its draconian ordinance against the freedom of the press, when Rajasthan and the entire country was busy focusing the violence surrounding the Padmaavat issue.
The statement released by the ministry on April 2, 2018, said, “Noticing the increasing instances of fake news in various mediums including print and electronic media, the Government has amended the Guidelines for Accreditation of Journalists. On receiving any complaints of such instances of fake news, the same would get referred to PCI and NBA, and the determination is expected to be completed within 15 days.”
As per the rules, the journalist’s accreditation would be suspended merely by an accusation for the time taken by these bodies to ascertain whether the news was fake or not. After a massive backlash, the PM intervened the next morning, and the order was withdrawn. But it is important to understand why such ordinances and orders keep coming up.
First, we need to understand who these accredited journalists are. PIB-accredited journalists are the ones who have been given a number of benefits including the right to report certain government events and to enter government buildings without prior notice. Another important right of accreditation is that the journalists can protect their sources.
Everyone is aware that social media is the greatest platform for spreading fake news. Also, there is an urgent need to tackle this menace before more loss of lives and properties occurs. But, the I&B ministry decided to tackle it by framing guidelines for an extremely tiny section of print and television media called accredited journalists. For acquiring accreditation, a journalist has to have an experience of five years from an organisation which is at least a year old. For freelancers, the experience required is 15 years. Hence, the possibility of them sharing fake news might be very less compared to the others.
Some people believe that this is a case of misplaced priorities, but it is clearly an attack on the press by attempting to eliminate those few free voices which still exist, or at least, by threatening them. The term ‘fake news’ has now become extremely popular and hence could have been used to defame anyone who becomes a hindrance in the work of propaganda.
Donald Trump infamously declared all his criticism as fake news and had also decided to hold ‘fake news awards’ for the channels and newspapers that are critical of him. The Indian government had gone a little ahead and found a way to legally legitimise this process.
Last week, Mahesh Hegde, the founder of the fake news factory “Postcard” was arrested. “Postcard” has been involved in repeatedly inciting communal hatred through fake news for quite a long time. In spite of that, it had the enormous support of a number of BJP leaders. Not very surprisingly, when we scroll down in the follower’s section of his Twitter handle, PM Modi is seen giving a subtle smile at us. In fact, Mahesh Hegde’s one-line Twitter biography says, “Blessed to be followed by PM Narendra Modi.” He is amongst the many rumour mongers whom the PM personally follows.
After the release of the April 2 order, “Pakistan-supported leader” Ahmed Patel tweeted to the I&B Minister Smriti Irani asking for the assurance that honest reporters will not be harassed. He also asked who will decide what fake news is. To this, Smriti Irani replied that it will be determined by PCI (Press Council of India) and NBA (National Broadcasters Association) and both are not controlled by the government.
The Press Council of India deals with issues related to newspapers, and the News Broadcasters Association deals with issues regarding the television segment. But interestingly, except one, all the MPs in the newly-reconstituted PCI are BJP MPs. One of these members is the BJP MP Pratap Simha, and he was amongst the first ones to defend Mahesh Hegde.
Pratap Simha had tweeted “Today morning Coward Congress Govt (Karnataka) arrested @mvmeet Mahesh Vikram Hegde under unconnected IT act 66, that too by using CCB! Shame on you @INCKarnataka.” ALT news found out that this tweet was also incorrect and he was not arrested under the IT Act.
Another body which was supposed to check fake news on television was the News Broadcasters Association which has repeatedly proven itself to be toothless. On March 9, 2017, Zee news broadcasted a show in which it made defamatory and derogatory remarks about the scientist and poet Gauhar Raza, by calling him a member of the Afzal Premi Gang. After his complaint, NBA ordered the channel to release an apology on prime time. It violated this order twice, and no action was taken. Amusingly, Zee Media Corporation Limited’s chief operating officer Rajiv Singh is himself a part of the News Broadcasters Association’s board of directors.
A few days before this order, the Central Press Accreditation Committee was reconstituted. This committee would have been dealing with the suspension of journalists if the order was not withdrawn. This new committee included ABP News’ Kanchan Gupta, who recently shared a fake photo from Republic TV’s parody account. The photo claimed that a boy seen in both Karni Sena and the Dalits’ protest is a Muslim named Abdul Jamal Khan. He soon removed his tweet and apologised. India TV also fell for this account and broadcasted that he was Abdul Jamal Khan. Then, silently, they deleted the video from its website.
Apart from some more instances of allegedly broadcasting fake news, India TV’s name also appeared in the “CobraPost” expose. The sting operation claimed that the channel was ready to promote Hindutva, do character assassination and help BJP win the 2019 elections in exchange of money. Ironically, India TV’s Chairman Rajat Sharma is also the Chairman of NBA’s Board of directors. The CobraPost expose also named daily newspaper Dainik Jagran. Shockingly, the marketing manager of Dainik Jagran even agreed to spread communal polarisation in exchange of money.
On the other hand, Prashant Mishra from Dainik Jagran is a member of the new Press Accreditation Committee. Another member of this committee is the recent interviewer of Narendra Modi – a famous anchor and the editor of Times Now, Navika Kumar. Today, not a month passes by in which Times Now fails to come up with some big fake news.
So considering their expertise, maybe people with a good experience of spreading fake news were given this role of tackling it. Hence, even if we expect them to be completely objective, the anonymity of the PCI and NBA that Smriti Irani talked about is highly doubtable. Arun Shourie even told the NDTV that we should never fall for this idea of ‘autonomous organisations’, because we have seen what the government has allegedly done to the RBI and Election Commission. Now, there are serious allegations of the government interfering in the Supreme Court’s matters as well.
A day after withdrawing its fake news regulation order, the I&B Ministry has come up with another serious attack on the freedom of expression. It has formed a committee to regulate online media. Platforms like The Wire, Newslaundary and Youth Ki Awaaz, may soon be regulated by this committee consisting of only bureaucrats and representatives from the above-mentioned PCI and NBA.
We have almost stepped into the election year, and the government is working hard to control the media. Or to frame it in a better way – control the media which still hasn’t been controlled. So that opposing voices get silenced, so that only their version of the story exists and so that 2019 becomes an easy game to win. However, in this process, the truth will be portrayed as a lie and a lie as the ultimate truth.
Hence, Gauhar Raza, after his experience with Zee News, writes in his poem:
“Ilzaam ye aaya tha mujhpar, har lafz mera ek nashtar hai.
Jo kuch bhi likha, jo kch bhi kaha, wo desh virodhi baatein thi.
Aur Hukm Kiya tha ye sadir, tehzeeb ke is Gehware ko,
Jo meri nazaer se dekhega wo ek mulzim kehlayega.
Jo Ishq ke Nagme gayega, jo pyaar ki baani bolega,
Jo baat kahega geeto me, jo aag bhujane uthega,
Jo haath jhatak de katil ka, wo ek mujrim kehlayega.
(The accusation on me was that every word of mine is a weapon.
Whatever I have written, whatever I have spoken, were all anti-national statements.
And the order was released to this cradle of culture,
Whoever sees through my point of view will be called an accused.
Whoever sings the songs of love, whoever says the words of love,
Whoever will speak through his songs, whoever stands up to stop the fire,
Whoever wrenches the hand of a murderer, will be called a criminal.)
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