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Media has lost its credibility is an oft repeated sentiment but sadly, increasingly true. This expression was loudly voiced at the Jamia Milia Islamia on Wednesday (24th Sep 2008).
The occasion was an address by the Vice Chancellor to the students of the university. The address came in the background of the encounter in Jamia Nagar followed by arrests of the alleged terrorists two of whom are students of the university.
The address was attended by an overwhelming majority of students (among those left, as many have returned home fearing the random picking up of students by the Delhi police). The auditorium was filled beyond capacity and students stood out in the corridors and in the sun, curious, relieved, excited to hear their VC take a stand. They cheered as the VC announced that the university will provide legal aid to the students arrested and will stand by all its students and they need not panic because of the area being constantly under scanner.
The underlying sentiment of the gathering was that, unless one is proven guilty the accused must be considered innocent and rightfully deserve legal aid.
As the gathering disbursed and hyper media crew got in action to get their shots of the sea of students coming out, the students erupted with one slogan – “Media Hai Hai”. The whole outburst went on till good long 20 minutes. It was an angry expression of what the youth in the area had been feeling at large since the encounter episode.
Clearly the national media has lost its credibility with the way it covered the entire encounter event, at least with the students of Jamia Milia Islamia. The entire coverage made one think and question that have all reporters taken dictation from the Delhi Police? Have they even thought of verifying the facts?
In the age of instant noodles and instant Khabar, it appeared that the media actually owed one to the Delhi Police as they had been very forthcoming with the information. The channels were in good business as they had new information for every bulletin. The entire news coverage was like a love child of Delhi Police and national media.
The mainstream media lost its credibility with the way it covered the Arushi and Hemraj murder case and this time too it appears to have committed the same folly.
