Ramaswami: Paranjoy Guha Thakurta 02 Apr 2020 PIB Modi Press Interaction On 24 March, Narendra Modi spoke to owners and editors of media organisations about their coverage of the COVID-19. The media may never be the same in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic collapse that will accompany and follow the health emergency across the world, and in India. Many governments across the globe are claiming that state control over information flows is essential, not just to combat fake news over the internet and social media, but also to confront and combat the ongoing multi-facetted crisis. In this country, there is a distinct possibility that rules could be interpreted and laws amended to enable the ruling regime to curb freedom of expression, especially information in digital media. This is not to argue that strict action should not be taken against purveyors of disinformation. But, there is a clear and present danger that the cure for fake news as proposed by authoritarian regimes, including the one in India, could prove worse than the disease. On the evening of March 31, a bench of the Supreme Court of India headed by the Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde and including Justice L. Nageswara Rao issued the following direction: “The migration of large number of labourers working in the cities was triggered by panic created by fake news that the lockdown would continue for more than three months. Such panic driven migration has caused untold suffering to those who believed and acted on such news. In fact, some have lost their lives in the process. It is therefore not possible for us to overlook this menace of fake news either by (the) electronic, print or social media. Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 provides for punishment to a person who makes or circulates a false alarm or warning as to disaster or its severity or magnitude, leading to panic. Such person shall be punished with imprisonment, which may extend to one year or with fine.” The court quoted a recent statement by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organisation (WHO): “We are not just fighting an epidemic; we are fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus, and is just as dangerous.” The 39-page status report, signed by the Union Home Secretary Ajay K. Bhalla, and submitted by the government of India to the apex court the same day concluded by stating: “In an unprecedented situation of this nature, any deliberate or unintended fake or inaccurate reporting either in electronic, print or social media and, particularly, in web portals, has a serious and inevitable potential of causing panic in large sections of society… any panic reaction by any section of society could not only be harmful for such (a) section but would harm the entire nation.” The government urged the Supreme Court to direct the media not to “print, publish or telecast anything without first ascertaining the true (and) factual position” provided by the central government. On the evening of March 23, less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi effusively praised the “tireless efforts” of the media for providing a “great service to the nation” by “understanding the gravity of the pandemic threat” and appreciating “the role played by the news channels in spreading awareness” about social distancing, police personnel in the national capital of Delhi and in Hyderabad assaulted at least four journalists who were reporting on the countrywide lockdown. In the early afternoon of March 24, Naveen Kumar, a reporter with the leading Hindi television news channel Aaj Tak said he was abused and beaten up by cops in Delhi Police uniforms while on his way to work. He said that he was at the Delhi-Noida check-post when his car was stopped. Despite showing his identity card, he was pushed inside a van where three policemen uttered expletives and punched him. He said he was let off after others gathered around the van and witnessed him being assaulted. The same night, policemen physically assaulted three journalists in Hyderabad: Ravi Reddy, bureau head of The Hindu, who was stopped at a barricade and roughed up while he was returning home from work; Mendu Srinivas, political bureau chief of the Telugu daily Andhra Jyothi was bashed up and insulted, as was Mohammed Hussain, a journalist with the English website of the Urdu daily Siasat. A representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based independent, non-profit, non-government organisation that seeks to promote media freedom and defend the rights of journalists, sent messages to the spokespersons of the police departments in Delhi and Hyderabad seeking their views on what had been reported by the four journalists, but received no responses. Even if these are isolated instances, if police personnel can act in the manner they did in the capital of India and the capital of Telengana, should one be surprised by the manner in which cops are seen in videos recorded on mobile phones, behaving worse than criminals with the poor and the underprivileged? Indian Media in the Post-Truth Era The paradox of the post-truth world we are living in was epitomised by two connected developments: a letter sent by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) on the day the Prime Minister uttered homilies in a video-conference he conducted with a select group of owners and representatives of media organisations from across the country. Firstly, the following is an excerpt of what Modi said, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office: “The tireless efforts of the reporters, camerapersons and technicians are a great service to the nation. The media should counter pessimism and panic through positive communication. COVID-19 is a lifetime challenge and it needs to be tackled through new and innovative solutions.” The letter itself, sent by Gopal Sadhwani, Director, Information and Broadcasting, to the Chief Secretaries of all states and Union territories, said that news agencies, television channels, teleport operators, Digital Satellite News Gathering (units) (DSNGs), Direct to Home (DTH) and Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) multi-system operators (MSOs), cable operators, FM (frequency modulation) radio and community radio stations provide services that are of “utmost importance to ensure timely and authentic information dissemination.” The letter said that all operators of such facilities and intermediaries in the chain should be permitted to remain operational, and that the movement of the accredited staff of service providers, as well as that of vehicles carrying media-persons and DSNGs units should be allowed without hindrance. Sadhwani added: “The proper functioning of these networks is required not only to create awareness among people and to give important messages but also to keep the nation updated of the latest status…fake and false news need to be avoided and good practices need to be promoted…” On March 23, the Prime Minister said news channels provided “vital” feedback on which “the government is constantly acting,” and went into details of how reporters should work. He suggested that the channels should provide dedicated boom microphones to field reporters so that they could maintain a distance of at least a metre while conducting interviews. The most detailed account of what transpired at the interaction between Modi and the owners and editors of more than 20 media organisations which publish and broadcast in eleven different languages from different parts of India, barely six hours before the three-week countrywide lockdown was announced, has been written by Sagar (with inputs from Mehak Mahajan) in Caravan. Here’s a long extract: “Through the interaction, the prime minister’s website reported, Modi sat with a notebook and pen and could be seen taking down notes when the participants offered suggestions. The exercise almost represented the journalists as a part of the government, as opposed to being members of an institution whose job entailed questioning the government on its shortcomings. Instead, most of the owners and editors appeared grateful for the exchange. The prime minister’s website reported that the journalists committed to “work on the suggestions of the prime minister to publish inspiring and positive stories” about COVID-19. After the interaction, some owners and editors who were present in the meeting took to Twitter to thank the prime minister for making them a part of the videoconference and seeking their opinions, while others published reports on the meeting on the front page the next day, with photos of themselves and Modi on the television screen. Following the conference, I spoke to nine owners and editors of media houses, from both national and regional media, who participated in the interaction. Almost all of them appeared enamoured by what some described as an important “gesture” from Modi, of considering their opinions. I asked the owners and editors whether their interaction with Modi, given his suggestion to publish positive stories, would affect their editorial judgment while publishing a critical piece on the government’s policies for fighting the novel coronavirus. Only two of them explicitly said they would publish a critical piece despite the interaction, while three said they would not do so but for different reasons, not due to the interaction. One of them asked me omit references to such question while referring to our conversation in this report. Others refused to comment at all.