When a Sikh journalist threw a shoe at Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram, the reactions varied. However, the worrying issue is that there was not enough condemnation of the action in media.
It is true that the act did help in delayed action against Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. The anger among Sikhs community against these persons who were accused of involvement in the killings of 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi, is justified.
But a journalist should remain a reporter, a person who watches events as a bystander. A journalist should not become an activist. If he becomes one, he ceases to be a journalist.
It is a dangerous trend. Once you are a journalist and you are covering an event, you ought to forget your association with your caste or community. Tomorrow a journalist may wear any identity on his sleeve.
He may become a Muslim and the target of shoe-gate could be a BJP leader or a North Indian journalist may hit a Shiv Sena leader for campaign against migrants from UP and Bihar (or a Tamil Nadu politician for support to LTTE).
A Dalit journalist may hit an Upper Caste person or vice versa. Yes, it grabs attention but it is an unhealthy trend. Congress MP Naveen Jindal is the latest as he was hit in Kurukshetra when Ram Pal, a retired teacher hurled his shoe at the MP.
It had started with Muntadir Al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist, who threw his shoe at George Bush. He missed the target and again took off the other shoe to hit at Bush which the then US Prez ducked. Now the trend is catching on in India.
Ideally a scribe must respond as a reporter, with his pen. He should ask tough questions but must not act irresponsibly. He is privileged to meet the high and mighty as an unbiased representative of the citizens and society.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
The Editor-in-Chief of Times Now channel, Arnab Goswami, was always considered a balanced anchor in comparison to several other journalist...
-
Indian media failed to rise to the occasion once again. It was a tragedy that unfolded in Mumbai for 48 hrs but channels didn't appear...
-
Do you know who is the editor of Times of India, the largest circulated English daily in the country (or world)? Chances are that you wo...
-
The story 'Residents live on razor's edge' published in Daily News Analysis (Mumbai) is surely in a bad taste. Of course, on the...
-
The TRP ratings of Zee News was soaring on Monday as it discovered the cave on an 8,000 ft high hill in Sri Lanka where they claimed that ...
-
Aaj Tak's Deepak Chaurasia was enlightening all of us with his special comments the morning BJP leader Pramod Mahajan was shot. Chaur...
-
On Saturday, Barkha Dutt wrote a column in Hindustan Times, expressing concern that how bloggers can write anything including gossip. She...
-
The rise of Raj Express in Madhya Pradesh has filled the void that existed for long in the state. Despite its vast Hindi readership, Madhya ...
-
Urban India was shocked and millions of eyes were tranfixed to news channels as police made the sensational revelations about the Aarushi Ta...
-
Print Vs Electronic: One media Patronises, other Exposes The meteoric rise of self-styled spiritual guru Nirmal Baba was seen with awe a...
Labels
Media
(15)
Journalism
(12)
Biased journalism
(9)
Irresponsible Media
(8)
Arnab Goswami
(7)
Biased Media
(7)
Indian Express
(6)
Indian Media
(6)
Media Hysteria
(6)
Dainik Bhaskar
(5)
Unethical journalism
(5)
Aaj Tak
(4)
Hindustan Times
(4)
Journalists
(4)
Magazines
(4)
TV Channels
(4)
English newspapers
(3)
False reporting
(3)
Hindi Media
(3)
Hindi TV channels
(3)
India Today
(3)
Indian journalism
(3)
Sting Operation
(3)
Superstitious Media
(3)
Terrorism
(3)
Times Now
(3)
Zee TV
(3)
BJP
(2)
Biased journalists
(2)
Dainik Jagran
(2)
Deepak Chaurasia
(2)
HT
(2)
HT Vs TOI
(2)
Media Blunders
(2)
Media watchdog
(2)
Media's Failures
(2)
Sudhir Chaudhary
(2)
Tehelka
(2)
Times of India
(2)
Zee News
(2)
ABP News
(1)
Abhisar Sharma
(1)
Amir Khan
(1)
Ashok Singhal
(1)
Barkha Dutt
(1)
Bhadas4Media
(1)
Bizarre journalism
(1)
Bloggers
(1)
Bollywood
(1)
Business Standard
(1)
Cameramen
(1)
Casteism
(1)
Chaitanya Kalbag
(1)
Chanda Kochhar
(1)
Communal riot
(1)
Controversies
(1)
DB Grouup
(1)
DNA
(1)
Deepak Sharma
(1)
Editor
(1)
Electronic Media
(1)
Encounter
(1)
Extra-judicial killings
(1)
Extremism
(1)
Fake encounters
(1)
HR policies
(1)
Hindi Journalism
(1)
Hindi TV Channel
(1)
Hindi newspaper
(1)
Hindu Terrorism
(1)
Hindustan
(1)
IBN 7
(1)
India TV
(1)
Indian Express Idea Exchange
(1)
Journalism Hall of Shame
(1)
Journalistic ethics
(1)
MJ Akbar
(1)
Majithia wage board
(1)
Managers-editors nexus
(1)
Media Obsessions
(1)
Media and Terrrorism
(1)
Muslim Terrorism
(1)
Nai Duniya
(1)
Nandan Nilekani
(1)
Naxalites
(1)
News channels
(1)
News channels.
(1)
Newspaper War
(1)
Newspapers
(1)
Obituary
(1)
Obscene advertisement
(1)
Obscenity
(1)
Operation Lajja
(1)
Pakistan election 2013
(1)
Photographers
(1)
Praveen Swami
(1)
Print media
(1)
Punya Prasun Vajpayee
(1)
Qamar Waheed Naqvi
(1)
Questionable journalism
(1)
Right-wing media
(1)
Right-wing websites
(1)
Saffron Terrorism
(1)
Sex Scandal
(1)
Sexual harassment in media
(1)
Sexuality
(1)
Socialites
(1)
Subhash Chanda
(1)
Suhel Seth
(1)
Sunday Newspapers
(1)
Swarajya Magazine
(1)
TV channel
(1)
The Hindu
(1)
The Week
(1)
Uday Shankar
(1)
Unethical reporting
(1)
2 comments:
even otherwise we have so much trouble with the security mechanism. journos do get frisked at times roughly and now this would only lead to situation where they would be asked to walk barefoot...but then maybe someone will through a pen?...then maybe we will have a video conference as the future!
http://brand-wand.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-green-most-abused-brand.html
In enlightened Kerala, CPM activists that strike or agitate throw not chappals or shoes on enemies; but nightsoil.
NGOs and teachers regularly use it on blacklegs and other unions. A State Human Rights Commission member took some action against some CPM civil servants and found his entire house painted with human excreta.
Kerala joutnalists beaten up frequently by CPM cadres only march the streets to Police Stations in protest now. Before long they might also start throwing. They might use Kerala's favourite throwing material.
Post a Comment