jutice katju

 
“The media is anti-people… it divides the country” Justice Katju He made the remarks in an interview to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN over the weekend.
Since yesterday the entire electronic media has gone into a frenzy over his remark. Most of the editors and their councils have come out with a scathing condemnation of Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju’s “ill-considered, sweeping and uninformed comments on the media,” alleging that they “touched a new low.”
However, the people at large, especially if you see the twitterspace,  resonate with what Justice Katju has said. All of us know that electronic media is like a giant super-robot which can turn fortunes overnight. It can make or break anyone within few hours of breaking a story. But as said in Spiderman with great power comes great responsibility, media too needs a regulatory body that can separate good journalism from vandalism. Why should media base its stories on the basis of which story can generate maximum TRPs? Why Manipur still struggles for its basic right while SRK 46th birthday is a lead story covered universally by all channels? Why channels are imposing their point of view on we the people? Their job is to bring the news to us and let us decide what’s wrong or right. They should stop being judgmental. The current crop of Brakha Dutt, Arnab Goswami, Rajdeep Sardesai, Karan Thapar are too opinionated and arrogant. The same behaviour is evident in their programmes. We have seen how media manipulates stories for its own benefits even in movies like Peepli Live & No one killed Jessica. Why no channel has shown a programme that is supporting Justice Katju’s remark? Let this be an unbiased debate and not driven by personal vendata.
What Justice Katju is demanding is fair and not  asking for draconian powers for the Press Council. The Media is supposed to be fighting for people. Instead all it cares is TRP and is usually on the rolls of one political party or another. The way news are presented often causes problems rather than solving it. There has to be regulation for it. What’s wrong on imposing fines, withdrawing advertisements and suspending publication licences, if any media crosses its limit and misleads the people. It’s very well justified.
Let’s support him.