Following is the communication of some youths from Bhopal who feel that mass circulated Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar has been mis-reporting and distorting facts, which falls in category of unfair journalism.
Sir,
We are young students who take newspapers seriously and feel that they should guide the young generation but we have realised that the reporting of Dainik Bhaskar in the recent case of arrests of suspected terrorists was wrong and misleading.
From October 15 to October 30, the paper carried reports about the involvement of right-wing Hindutva-inspired radicals in blasts in Ajmer Dargan, Mecca Masjid, Samjhauta Express and Malegaon-Modasa. In this period Muslim hardliners of SIMI were also caught.
Newspapers are not courts (or judges). Either they should write all of them as 'suspected terrorists' and 'terror accused' or mere activists. But the paper's journalistic policy is strange.
When the Sanatan Sanstha members who had bombs died in blast, it cleverly gave the headline that the organisation has been blamed but didn't mention the word terrorist or even extremist. When Indore's links emerged in all cases of blasts, it once again chose mild expressions. When SIMI members were caught, it straight labelled them as terrorists.
We feel that either they are all activists charged with disruptive activities and terrorism or they are all terrorists. Similar is the case of Naxalites who brutally kill innocents but are not called Terrorists. Either newspapers should leave the job of judging until a court convicts them.
Until then the arrested persons could be called 'suspects in terror attack' which is the standard practice. If the paper wants 'sensational' news then the words used should be same for all groups irrespective of their affiliation and closeness to the workers of a party, in power at the state.
Is this correct? Your paper's email address doesn't seem to work at all. Letters to editors are generally not published if they are critical of you and phone calls are never directed to editors. We hope that you will think about guiding youths correctly with fair and ethical reporting rather than sensational, biased and one-sided journalism.
Thanks
Ashvini, Prayag, Dilip, Ramiz Qureshi, Azra, Vinay and Sutapa
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