Irresponsible Indian Media: Gujarat girl hangs self after watching Saddam's execution

Who will pay for the life of Prateeksha Patel, a 15-year-old who hanged self to death after watching the scene of Saddam's hanging repeatedly on television channels.

She had a tiff with her brother and after watching the execution on TV screen, she asked her father repeatedly if the form of death caused pain to person. She then locked her in a room and ended her life.

Indian visual media forgets that there are tens of millions of people in this country who are impressionable, depressed, mentally challenged, suffering from various forms of mental illnesses and anxieites.

And there are children/teenagers like Prateeksha. But the macabre act was shown again and again. Will the heads of these channels be questioned for the death. Indian Electronic Media sucks, it is disgusting. It is perhaps the most irresponsible media in the world.

But does anybody dare to raise a voice. The government, the ministers, the commissions and the NGOs must come out and rein in these channels. Just one tough directive from the government or a minister would be enough but sadly the establishment is not sensitive enough.

Meanwhile, another girl has ended life in Kolkata. Moon Moon (or Munmun) Karmakar hanged herself for wanting to "feel the pain Saddam did during the execution".

"She said they had hanged a patriot. We didn't take her seriously when she told us that she wanted to feel the pain, Saddam did during the execution," the girl's father Manmohan Karmakar was quoted as saying. According to Manmohan, Moon Moon had become extremely depressed after watching Saddam's execution on television.

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Don't fret over bloggers' independence, it is mainstream media that needs watchdogs

On Saturday, Barkha Dutt wrote a column in Hindustan Times, expressing concern that how bloggers can write anything including gossip.

She was miffed at how they can write about 'honourable people' and their private lives, and that the blogosphere functions without any watchdog.

She mentioned how NDTV had refused to show a particular video clip but bloggers would not hesitate before uploading any footage.

Though she is a reputed journalist, I feel that it was probably her own insecurity which she has now spell out.

When mainstream media would not report news and simply go for sensationalism besides restricting itself to urban areas and refusing to accept its mistakes, who is going to expose them?

Either it is Khairlanjee killings or the Noida (Nithari) kidnappings and murders, media has failed the society.

Well-connected are never the suspects

Nithari case accused Moninder Singh Pandher and Surinder Singh have reportedly confessed abusing and killing over 15 children, says NDTV, her own channel. It must be remembered that Moninder is an alumnus of St Stephen's College and was also a student of Bishop Cotton.

But it was not until these accused were caught and the reports were out that NDTV deputed its celebrity reporters to go to Nithari. The poor Bengali households that don't have ration cards, that have no clout or connections, were never on the priority radar of the Noida based channels until then.

Poor standards of journalism

The abysmal reporting done by channels in the recent past (there have been few exceptions) brings us to a situation where media has failed its prime duties.

All departments have PROs and the journalists prefer the easy way--going for bytes, taking reports and analyzing them, remaining in urban areas and of course attending press conferences--so what about journalism? 

Kabhi gaon mein bhi jaao yaar. It is only during election time when you ride with celebrity politicians for a visit to constituency.

Where is your watchdog? 

All the time you keep reporting frivolous things and waste precious primetime. You give a damn to sensibilities of viewers and show people getting killed, hanged (Saddam Hussein). Who questions you? We don't need watchdogs. You need it! As far as spicy stories and juicy gossips are concerned, there has always been a section of media and press also that publishes them.

And now Barkha visits Nithari like a bureaucrat on tour to village just like officials visit a place after tragedy or mishap. She has been an outstanding journalist but the celebrity journos must learn to accept criticism in healthy spirit and rather than blaming bloggers, first ensure a clean up in their own organisations.

If some blogs do that, they don't at least push it down anybody's throat unlike you who want to grab eyeballs, just whatever way you can. Bloggers have their own way of censorship and watchdogs also.

Good blogs survive, blogs that are not responsible don't. So please don't get excessively concerned about bloggers. Learn something from the Nithari tragedy. And appoint a watchdog for yourself. In any case, you like it or not, we will keep playing your watchdog.

Indian Media's Shame: Noida serial killings

Most news channels have their head offices in Noida but failed to see the trend of missing children and could not report the disappearance of children until the police arrested the culprits and the horrifying story unfolded. Why?

It's the failure of Indian Media. Some correspondents had reported it earlier but the top bosses in plush offices of Delhi/Noida perhaps did not find merit in it. (probably the reporters had little access to editorial bosses so that they could convince editorial meetings that it was indeed worth prime time news).

And, how could it have been newsworthy for them! Most channels have turned news into soap operas and are obsessed with Aishwarya Rais and Abhishek Bachchans. They need to do a soul-searching.

The channels that had gone crazy when ONE CHILD, the son of Adobe CEO, was abducted from Noida, remained oblivious to the fact that umpteen children were missing from an area just in their backyard. Is that because the son of an MNC matters more to the media that is bedazzled with power and moneyed-people.

And ironically, at last when the police managed to catch the culprits the shameless anchors had the audacity to tell viewers that it was the failure of cops to catch the culprits so late. At least the cops caught the accused, though belatedly. What the media did? What about its role of investigation and reporting.

How big is Nithari village! If 40-odd children went missing from here, it was not an ordinary story. And it was not that people were not aware. Actually, the channels apparently did not find enough 'masala' (sic) for them in poor children who were disappearing. But once skeletons were unearthed and the nation was shocked at the serial killings where children were subjected to sexual abuse, the electronic news channels were woken up from their deep slumber.

The media does need to question itself for its askewed vision, faulty news coverage and obsession with fashion, lifestyle, rich people and all the glitz except the life of ordinary Indians. We wonder how many such stories have never been told.

Alas, Aishwarya visiting Ajmer Sharif and Pushkar makes the biggest headline in this nation. The families of children always suspected that the incidents were occurring in the particular area. But no sting operation was planned.