ARE WE JOURNALIST OR PEOPLE FROM GENERAL LIST????

India, considered to be the land of virtues and ethical values…Values that each of us boast of and are proud to have imbibed from our ancestors. It’s a matter of shame if such a country witnesses an incident of Journalist throwing shoe on Home Minister...

The same issue being the topic of discussion yesterday a friend of mine hurled a question at me and started speaking of irresponsible journalism and the hype media gives to a particular news…I could not say much because I realized that he was not wrong. If journalists of the country (who are supposed to behave responsibly and should have a sense of ethics) are involved in such acts I actually won’t be able to justify the field I m in because most of the times instead of making the news we actually land up breaking it and over hyping things which can be avoided…

It was only when I landed in the field of Journalism that I could see the proverb “All that Glitters is not Gold” materialize in front of my eyes…I could feel that Press which was considered to be the fourth pillar of society was being eaten by the termites...and the worst part is these termites are us, the journalists who came into the profession with the strong will and determination to show the truth and vowed against biasness. But the pressure of people sitting above us and the sense of competition actually shakes the strong will and we become the part of the rat race…The race which is actually going to take us nowhere…The race where we lose our identity…The race where the winner is predecided…

The obvious question now is why do we fall into the pit when we know about it and its consequences??? And the very obvious answer is because we are lured to the fact that it is a glamorous profession and it will give us name, fame and above all money…There are only few who come with the mindset to work honestly and be unbiased come what may…And those who have it in them lose it in the course of time because of quite many restrictions…

This reminds me of an incident when I was an intern in DD News and had followed a senior on a shoot…We had to cover the press conference of Kamal Nath, Commerce Minister…While the conference was on, the reporters of private news channels asked whatever they wanted and even blamed the minister but my senior could not ask something derogatory because he belonged to DD News…the national channel…such are the restrictions…and at times you can’t do anything about it even if you wish to because going against it means paying the price for it…I remember his words till date… “It’s very tough to change the system being in the system and remember only we can think of bringing a change”…After sometime I got the news of his resignation…He had taught me a great lesson which I’ll remember for lifetime and which every journalist should because where there is a will, there certainly is a way...

For all those who think that the story is incomplete it actually is…and to have the complete story many more journalists will have to rise up from the deep slumber they are in, introspect and ask themselves: Are they journalists or people from general list???? It’s only when this realization will strike that the story will be completed…