SHILLONG: The media should be able to keep its own conscience rather than seek to become the conscience keeper of the nation, was the outcome of the panel discussion on “Is media the nation’s conscience keeper?” held on the occasion of 69th birth anniversary of The Shillong Times at Pinewood Hotel on Tuesday.
During the panel discussion, Dr.Sukalpa Bhattacharjee, English Department, NEHU said that the current trend is for the media to manufacture news to please a section of readership since media caters to a certain class of readers. “The powerless and voiceless almost always get left out of the media frame,” she said, adding that media today is driven by a corporate agenda and hence is not really free.
Dr Bhattacharjee said Article 19 (a) of the Constitution through which the freedom of expression flows needs to be unbundled so that media is not ambivalent about its meaning. She said the media should develop its own autonomous conscience to create an enabling environment for a vibrant democracy.
Echoing the same views, UDP leader Paul Lyngdoh said that media should be the watchdog of democracy, but the fact is that from being the watch-dog the media is quickly turning out to be the lapdog of politicians and corporate houses.
He also stressed the need for improving credibility and accountability on the part of the media.
When the moderator Partho Chakraborty , Programme Executive, Doordarshan Kendra sought further comments on the matter, the Chancellor of Martin Luther Christian University, RG Lyngdoh, said that it would be asking too much from the media to be the conscience keeper of the nation. He suggested that it is best for the media to keep its own conscience or to restore that conscience if it is lost.
According to RG Lyngdoh, the current debate for media to become the conscience keeper of the nation has arisen because the other pillars of democracy – the legislature, executive and judiciary — have all failed the people in one way or the other.
“The media should police itself first before becoming the conscience keeper of the nation”, he added.
President of the Shillong Press Club David Laitphlang lamented that section of the media is swayed by the opinions of a certain group of people in times of crisis instead of providing varied views so that people can make an informed decision.
According to Laitphlang, the media should introspect on its own behaviour. “If we become better citizens, we would become better journalists which will result in nation building,” he observed.
He also pointed out varied aspects of new media and its implications and posed a query on whether there is a need to curb the contents on social media.
Editor of North East Today, Pradyot Manikya Debbarma highlighted the role played by the media during the atrocities committed against Indians in Australia, which took the panel discussion to a different realm. Debbarma was hinting at the power of the corporate world to bribe the media not to print defamatory content.
Debbarma argued that it is not wrong for a politician to own the media since every other person who owns it also has the tendency to abuse the media. Checks and balances come in through responsible editorship, he said.
In his concluding remarks, the moderator, Partho Chakroborty summed up the discussion saying that democracy can thrive when media develops its own conscience”.