From Gaza to Kashmir: Why is Indian media suffering from selective coverage syndrome?

 Broken News

Published in Newslaundry on December 15, 2023

Link: https://www.newslaundry.com/2023/12/15/from-gaza-to-kashmir-why-is-indian-media-suffering-from-selective-coverage-syndrome

For more than two months, the world has watched the virtual obliteration of occupied Gaza and its residents by Israel. The visuals, the videos, and the testimonies of residents, doctors, UN officials, and journalists are flooding social media portals. Those who want to know what is happening on the ground seek out these sources, watch, and read.

But if you depend only on mainstream television channels or newspapers, the horror of what is unfolding will pass you by. This is because even if there is reporting, it is selective and one-sided, playing up one side and playing down another.

In India, the reporting, what little there is, consists of reprints from the New York Times or a precis of reports from different western-based news agencies. You rarely find anything from Al Jazeera, which has focused on Gaza since Israel’s bombardment began, or other sources in the region. 

To illustrate, look back at what Indian newspapers reported during the brief ceasefire when Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were exchanged for Israelis held hostage by Hamas after the October 7 attack. Most reports that appeared in our newspapers, which were reprinted from western sources, focussed on the Israelis who had been released. We read who they were and some of what they experienced while held captive. But there was next to nothing about the young Palestinians who were released in the exchange. These Palestinians had been held in Israeli prisons without trial. Their lives had been upended. They saw no hope of ever being released. Their stories also needed to be heard. But in India, we heard only one side. 

Occasionally, you come across reports like this one, taken from Reuters. It tells us that even those who survived the relentless bombing by Israel that has already killed around 18,000 Palestinians, many of them children, now face the prospect of the spread of diseases that will result in more deaths. It quotes data from the World Health Organisation that between November 29 and December 10, incidents of diarrhoea in children under 5 years have increased by 66 percent. In the absence of clean water or healthcare, these children might not survive the inevitable dehydration. Also, according to the WHO, 21 out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are now closed.  

A notable exception in Indian media was Frontline magazine. It made the Israel war on Gaza its cover story in its November 17 issue, and for this, it was trolled by supporters of the government. It has continued to carry informative reports on the war.

Why are we seeing this partial and one-sided coverage in our media? One explanation is the dependence on western news agencies and newspapers for foreign news. If you look at the world news page in any newspaper, most reports are attributed to these sources. Practically no newspaper in India can now afford to send correspondents to provide direct coverage of such a conflict. Inevitably, this means that Indian readers get international news through the filter of a western perspective.

In the 1970s, there was talk of a New International Information Order, and some attempts were made to set up news agencies staffed by journalists from the Global South who could bring a different perspective to world news. Most of these efforts failed due to a lack of funding. As a result, we are back to our dependence on western news sources for news of developments outside our borders.

Even if this reality cannot be changed, is mainstream Indian media compelled to follow the line taken by the government on foreign policy issues? You would think not, given that we are constantly reminded that there is freedom of the press in this country. Yet, a survey of Indian media would show that, by and large, it toes the line of the government. 

This has been especially obvious recently in the coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Modi government has chosen to back Israel, going against India’s historical support for Palestine (although in the last days, it has modified its stance and voted for a ceasefire in the UN General Assembly). 

The one-sided reporting on the Israel-Palestine war, which has galvanised protests around the world demanding a ceasefire, and continues to be the lead story in media in many countries, also illustrates a deeper fault line in our media, linked to the business model of mainstream media. For several decades, we have watched “news” that sells the “product” gaining dominance, while other events and developments deemed too far or not of interest to readers or viewers are either ignored, or barely noted.  

Thus, for instance, Manipur was in the news for a short while when the extent of violence in a state caught in a civil war just could not be ignored. But today, it has virtually disappeared from our news pages. Nothing is normal in that state. Yet, we read next to nothing about it. 

Similarly, look at the coverage of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the abrogation of Article 370. The region affected by it is Jammu and Kashmir. Most newspapers carried details about the judgement, learned interpretations of it, some opinions – both critical and supportive, and statements made by a few politicians from the region. And all major newspapers printed the identical article by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the judgement. 

But so far, there is practically nothing about how ordinary people in Kashmir feel about the ruling. Those who want to know have either reached out to people they know or read their guarded comments on social media. Guarded because of the fear that pervades the region since 2019.  

A rare and brave article that has appeared, predictably, on an independent digital news platform rather than in any of our national newspapers is this one written by Toufiq Rashid in The Wire. Titled “Why there is silence in Kashmir over the Supreme Court’s verdict,” this beautifully written, and evocative article is worth reading not just once but several times. Let me quote just one paragraph:

“The silence in Kashmir is loud and deafening and its people are isolated. Kashmir continues to be the paradise it was, people continue to remain the best hosts you will have but we are far from happy. With every passing day, as the voices in Kashmir are muffled, we are stepping closer and closer to complete political alienation.”

It is in these pockets of silence – Kashmir, Manipur, our tribal belts, the areas that seem entrenched forever “below poverty line” – that the real stories of what is happening in this country lie. These are the stories that we in the media need to report, and through them inform the comfortable that there are millions who are afflicted.

Even if we argue that the sorrows and tribulations of the people who are still alive in Gaza are some distance from us, what is our excuse for not keeping the focus on the areas engulfed in silence within our own boundaries?

The answer is so obvious that it does not need repeating. 

In Indian elections, Gaza violence, some misses and misfires by traditional media

 Broken News

Published in Newslaundry on November 16, 2023

Link: https://www.newslaundry.com/2023/11/16/in-indian-elections-gaza-violence-some-misses-and-misfires-by-traditional-media

Cricket and elections, in that order, have dominated the Indian news cycle for the last few weeks. The world media on the other hand is focussed on the war declared by Israel against Gaza following the October 7 attack by Hamas. The daily mounting toll of casualties reported from Gaza, especially of children, has resulted in a mounting cry across much of the world for a ceasefire, but so far to no effect.

Leaving aside cricket, reporting on Indian elections, and on the war on Gaza challenges journalists in a most essential way.

Election coverage in India consists mostly of reporting what she or he said and some reports on what the public perceives. Journalists are also expected to make a guess about which way the wind is blowing, in the direction of the incumbent, the opponent, or neither.

This format permits prominent political figures to get away with statements that are either inaccurate, or even outright lies. Yet, rarely does the media call them out. As a result, for the record, what a politician says, including the prime minister, is uncritically recorded, and reported. Without challenge, it gets accepted as fact.

As politics is essentially a battle of perception, this approach of the media contributes directly to popular perception about a personality or a political party. There is little doubt that the blanket and uncritical coverage by the Indian media, especially television, of everything Prime Minister Narendra Modi does or says, from the inauguration of a minor railway station, or highway, to a political rally, has contributed to the personality cult around him. We witness this again in the ongoing election campaigns in the five states that are holding elections – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Mizoram, and Rajasthan. 

While reporting what politicians say during elections cannot be avoided, it ought not to be the bulk of coverage. There are, of course, reports of what voters think, with some kind of random sampling done by most reporters. Very few try to reach out to women, or to the most marginalised. Generally, the vox popconsists of people you bump into and who are willing to talk.

The opportunity that is missed during election coverage, which sends droves of reporters on the ground, is the chance to assess whether the declarations made by incumbent governments, boasting of far-reaching benefits given to the poorest communities, are true or not. Have various government schemes that are projected as successful benefitted the poorest? 

In this round of state elections, such reporting has largely been missing, barring a few exceptions. Thus, the rare report tells us that the much-touted Ujjwala scheme, for instance, that is supposed to have helped households switch from polluting biomass chulhas to LPG gas has been less than successful. The reasons remain the same as those documented in numerous studies. That after the first free gas cylinder, families simply have not been able to afford the replacement. Women are compelled to revert to using firewood that affects their own health directly and increases their workload. 

Doing such stories is not difficult if you have reporters already on the ground. Given that most media houses have drastically reduced investment in ground-based reporting, this is an opportunity missed. And especially so in these elections, where we have seen intense competition between opposing parties to announce ever more generous benefits to the poor.

Of course, in this age of social media, whether traditional media really affects voting choices is a moot point. Do what we report, or the way we tell our stories as journalists, really contribute to perceptions that affect political choices, or even an understanding of what’s happening in the country given the all-pervasive presence of social media? 

Take Manipur, for instance. It is now seven months since the state has been embroiled in a virtual civil war between two communities, the Meitei, and the Kuki-Zo. The conflict continues to fester without any serious intervention by the central government to find a solution. Just when you think things have quieted down, another incident is reported of killings or destruction.

For the people living in the state and in the region, the veracity of what circulates as “news” continues to be challenging. Increasingly, each side is convinced that what it has seen circulated on social media is the fact. Even journalists from the two opposing sides are caught in this battle of what really is “the truth” and what are facts.

Similarly, the current Israeli attack on Gaza has raised many questions in the international media on how to sift fact from fiction in the reporting. 

Take, for instance, this report in the New York Times on an attack on the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza on November 10.  The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that it was a misfired missile from Hamas. The New York Times went to some lengths to verify facts and has concluded that it was Israeli shells that hit the hospital.

However, it also adds, “The evidence reviewed by The Times from Al-Shifa points more directly to strikes by Israel – whether on purpose or by accident is unclear.” That caveat speaks to the lengths some in the Western media are going to prove that they are “balanced” in their reporting, even as they ignore the clear statements by numerous Israeli politicians about why their country has launched this devastating attack on Gaza. The politicians make no bones about the motive behind the bombardment.

Earlier, on October 17, a blast at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza also triggered a similar debate in the international media. While Palestinians claimed it was an Israeli rocket, the IDF insisted it was a misfired rocket by Hamas. In its report, the NYT concluded: 

“Using satellite imagery to triangulate the launch point in those videos, The Times determined that the projectile was fired toward Gaza from near the Israeli town of Nahal Oz shortly before the deadly hospital blast. The findings match the conclusion reached by some online researchers.”

The lengths to which media houses have gone to question versions put out by the warring sides illustrates the tremendous challenges in reporting on conflict in general, and this kind of conflict in particular. There are no easy answers. But apart from the individual incidents such as the two cited above, what informs readers and viewers is the choice of what is reported. Here the bias, stated or otherwise, of a publication or TV channel comes through even as they project themselves as being balanced. 

In any case, irrespective of what major news outlets in the West such as NYT or others report, people are getting their information about the war from other sources. The thousands of young people on the streets of western capitals, demonstrating every weekend demanding a ceasefire in this war even as their own governments continue to support and arm Israel, are not depending on these traditional sources for their information.  

There are dozens of independent platforms streaming on social media that provide anyone interested with the realities that Gazans live with every single day since Israel began the bombardment followed by the land invasion. These images and video clips are a record that cannot be erased even if mainstream media chooses to downplay the reality. 

Meanwhile, a sobering side of the Israeli war on Gaza is that an estimated 41 journalists covering it have been killed, according to this report by Reporters without Borders.  That number has increased since that report was published and is now thought to be touching 50. 

Even as some in the media debate what are the real “facts” in this terrible war, those trying to do their job in recording events face dangers that far exceed anything we have witnessed in other conflicts.  

Voice of sanity

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, December 8, 2013

The Hindu Palestinian author Suad Amiry. Photo: Meeta Ahlawat

 

This has been quite a fortnight for Indian women, and for some Indian men. Two young women have focussed national attention on the misuse of power, on sexual harassment at the workplace and on the challenges of pursuing cases of sexual assault.

We have also watched the game of competitive politics muddying an issue that should have remained firmly focused on issues of gender. Instead, helped largely by some sections of the media, it has deteriorated into a slanging match, of a kind that is all too familiar in this election season.

Amid all the heat and noise generated, what did we forget? Plenty. For one, we forgot that the issue was violence against women. We forgot, that it is not just these two women but thousands like them who can never speak up because the predators are in their homes, in their neighbourhoods, men they know and even trust. And we in the media forgot that going for the overkill on one case will do nothing to educate our readers and viewers about the reality of sexual violence that women confront.

In the midst of all this madness, it was a relief and inspiring to listen to a voice of sanity. To a woman who can tell you something about the insanity of living daily under the cloud of violence. About the ability of women to work around this state of madness. And about how, despite life’s grimness, you can have a sense of humour.

The woman I refer to is the remarkable Palestinian writer and architect, Suad Amiry. She was in India at the end of last month to release her new book, Golda slept here (published by Women Unlimited).

Amiry is an architect. Her organisation, Riwaq, has done amazing work in restoring and conserving heritage buildings in Palestine. These structures have been restored to create spaces for the local community who live in a perpetual state of siege. Riwaq has created over one hundred such “spaces for change”, as she calls them.

When you listen to Amiry, you get a new perspective on survival, on how to deal with adversity, on how to make people laugh even though what you narrate is heart-wrenchingly tragic.

Born in Damascus to a Syrian mother and Palestinian father, Amiry chose to make her home in Ramallah, on the West Bank. And in addition to her work as a restoration architect, she began to write about living in Palestine where, as she says, you have to forget about logic because “nothing makes sense”. Amiry says she also realised that Palestinians speak about their collective loss but hardly ever about personal loss. Her latest book records the stories of Palestinians who had owned and lived in beautiful homes in Jerusalem but who, like other Palestinians, were turned into refugees overnight in 1948 when Jerusalem was divided. Some of them moved to East Jerusalem, others further, to other cities, other countries.

In 1967, when the Israelis occupied East Jerusalem and made it, once again, one city, many of these Palestinians thought they would be entitled to recover their properties. Instead, they found their homes occupied by Israeli families. What hurt the most was that these families had no idea of the past, of the people who had designed and built these beautiful homes, who had lived in them for generations, and who had to abandon them not out of choice but because of the force of circumstances. As if that was not enough, under Israeli law, these Palestinian home owners were considered “absentee” landlords and therefore had no rights over their own property.

Of course, these stories are familiar from the Partition between India and Pakistan and in other parts of the world where forceful displacements of people have taken place. But the poignancy of the stories that Amiry recounts in her book are special because these are people who now live in the same city, they are not “absent” and yet the law will not acknowledge their presence. As architect Andoni Baramki, who built many beautiful buildings in Jerusalem tells the judge hearing his case for repossession of his home, “Sir, the Palestinians are ‘absentees’ only because you do not allow them to be present. And those of us who are present are considered absent. We can never win.”

Indeed, nothing makes sense in Palestine. Except the lives of those who survive, who “lost the pillars for a sane life, a profound foundation called HOME,” as Amiry puts it. Yet who continue to fight and to hope. They have much to teach us. 

(To read the original, click here.)