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International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
78
ISSN 2347-5153 (Print)
2454-2679 (Online)
DOI: 10.5958/2454-2679.2020.00007.9
Vol. 08| Issue-03|
July- September | 2020
Available online at
www.anvpublication.org
International Journal of Advances in
Social Sciences
RESEARCH ARTICLE
News is Either Censored or Politicised
(A study of the Indian News Scenario)
Aishwarya Anishka*
Casting Assistant at Jogi Film Casting, Mumbai, Maharashtra- 400053.
*Corresponding Author E-mail: aishlee.baldwin@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
The news these days is either being censored or highly politicized. There is no ‘clean and clear’ picture anymore.
“If You Don’t Read the Newspaper You Are Uninformed, If You Do Read the Newspaper You Are
Misinformed” are the words said by Mark Twain. In this paper, we will see what is the general perception of the
people regarding how media works and what are their opinions on issues such as the journalists being threatened,
news being politicised or censored and what could be the possible solution for such matters. The dialogue
process of various stakeholders in the process is studied. News to be brought out to the public as it is with utmost
truth and reality in it so as to let them form their own opinions and freely accept or criticise it.
KEYWORDS: Censored, Politics
INTRODUCTION:
India is known as one of the largest democracies in the
world. The key function of a democracy is to protect its
founding principles of liberty, justice, and equality that
constitute the legislative, judicial and executive branches
of government. It is highly important for all three
branches to work together yet being independent of each
other and balance the powers of one another. The fourth
estate, Media, is equally at the apex. As much as the first
three branches have the power to control and provide the
nation, media too carries a supreme role. The media
should be fair and free. It should not be biased and shall
provide with proper, clear and crisp information to the
public. However, in recent times, censorship on media is
taking a troll over the democratic state. The right to
freedom in Article 19 of the constitution of India
guarantees the Freedom of speech and expression, as one
of its six freedoms. Unfortunately, it seems that these
rights are being violated by the government it self.
Received on 09.08.2020 Modified on 17.08.2020
Accepted on 24.08.2020 © A&V Publication all right reserved
Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences. 2020; 8(3):78-86.
DOI: 10.5958/2454-2679.2020.00007.9
Therefore, freedom of speech and expression, press
freedom, online freedom and personal freedom are all
the centre of debate today.
The news these days are either being censored or highly
politicised. There is no ‘clean and clear’ picture
anymore. “If You Don’t Read the Newspaper You Are
Uninformed, If You Do Read the Newspaper You Are
Misinformed” are the words said by Mark Twain which
is very much the case in India, today. Some of the news
that comes out are either in favour of political parties
that have bribed the media house or have threatened
them to write in their favour. Some news when brought
out leads to ban of the channel for 24 hours by the
Information and Broadcasting Ministry. However, if the
case is of national security, only then should there be
some confidentiality so as to refrain the enemies to get
information that can be used against our country and put
its national security at stake. Some incidences that take
place where there is public or crowd involved at the cite,
the internet is shut down by the government. Some
reporters or activists that publish articles criticising the
government or any political party are threatened or
murdered in a mysterious manner. This definitely does
not seem to be a peaceful democracy having such
International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
79
violations of fundamental rights being made. The 2017
World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without
Borders ranked India at 136 our of 180 countries. This
ranking thus tells us how critical the condition of
reporting news in our country is. In the interest of
democracy, it is vital that the public should be able to
participate as well as access information that is free of
bias and prejudice. For the democracy to work
efficiently, the elections to be fair and to know the real
world one lives in, the media should be able to provide
the citizens with the news that is out fresh and unbiased
without being influenced by political leaders, media
houses or any other entity. It is best for the news to be
brought out to the public as it is with utmost truth and
reality in it so as to let them form their own opinions and
freely accept or criticise it. This research paper will try
to answer why is there censorship of media? Is it
required? And lastly, how free is the Press? It is also
critical for giving the disadvantaged a voice in the
formulation of local decisions that affect their lives (Anil
Kumar Pathlavath, 2016).
For the democracy to work efficiently, the elections to be
fair and to know the real world one lives in, the media
should be able to provide the citizens with the news that
is out fresh and unbiased without being influenced by
political leaders, media houses or any other entity. It is
best for the news to be brought out to the public as it is
with utmost truth and reality in it so as to let them form
their own opinions and freely accept or criticise it.
In this paper, we will see what is the general perception
of the people regarding how media works and what are
their opinions on issues such as the journalists being
threatened, news being politicised or censored and what
could be the possible solution for such matters. Dialogue
process of various stakeholders in the process makes
more evident (Anil Kumar Pathlavath, 2018).
Liberty is the state of being free within society from
oppressive restrictions imposed by one’s behaviour or
political views. Justice is the treatment of a behaviour
being imposed. Equality is when all individuals are
treated equally irrespective of their gender, religion or
any other factor, in term of status, opportunities, and
rights. National Security is the safety or protection of a
nation against crimes or threats such as terrorism, wars,
or any other crisis over the nation. It is the priority of
every country’s government. Prejudice is the
preconceived notion that may or may not be based upon
the reality. it is just a biased opinion which may be
influenced by past experiences or other incidents.
OBJECTIVES:
• To establish why is the news by media censored or
why most of the news goes through political
dominance. To identify the role government, political
parties and other involved entities play in the news
being broadcasted or published.
• To see the impact of the news that is being circulated
through print and broadcast media.
GOALS:
To spread awareness of the current situation and have a
fair and balanced flow of information without it being
censored or it threatening a journalist. It may not happen
overnight. However slow and steady steps can bring
about a great change.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Soutik Biswas (2015) in his article titled “The fear of
censorship in Indian media” explained:
People have started to fear Modi’s government after it
went on to accuse three new channels for violating
broadcasting regulations by airing interviews that
criticised the government for the execution of Yakub
Menon. In one of the interviews Menon’s former lawyer
said that if the authorities of UK and US and other best
brains as far as criminal law is concerned, get to hear
about the execution, they will just laugh on the Indian
Judiciary system. This was however taken as offence to
the Indian government and the news channels were
threatened for airing these interviews. Biswas also
mentions a statement made by a journalist over how the
Prime Minister’s office has been centralised. He
concludes his article by pointing out this year’s Press
Index ranking that is 137 out of 180 countries and says
that the Press needs more freedom to thrive as a
democracy. Kumar, A. (2019).
In another article written by Aarefa Johari (2017) titled
“Attacks, bans, censorship: On World Press Freedom
Day, a report on India’s ‘shrinking liberty” goes ahead
by describing- An overall sense of shrinking liberty in
the country due to the restrictions on the rights of
citizens to information, internet access and online
freedom. She states that between January 2016 and April
2017, there have been minimum of 54 attacks on
journalists across the country. some have been beaten up,
threatened and some have been killed. Unfortunately the
number of such journalists for raising their voices and
throwing their criticism and opinions are being
increased. There have been two high profiled journalists
that have been killed this year due to their courageous
and bold way of working. Another essential topic that
Johari has discussed about is the Censorship and internet
shutdown. She included the 24 hour ban by the
Information and Broadcasting Ministry on NDTV India
for allegedly revealing strategic information about the
Indian Army’s operation during a terrorist attack on an
Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in January this year.
She also brought out the case of Kashmir Reader that
International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
80
faced harassment and censorship after killing of militant
commander Burhan Wani. The office of Kashmir
Readers were raided and their printings were closed
down. She concludes her article by establishing that the
Right to Information is being diluted. New delivery
channel to commence and be useful to masses, it is
worthwhile to examine various components of its
interface with payment systems, technology, security,
regulatory aspects and functionality (Anil Kumar
Pathlavath, 2013).
One article by Abhishek Dey titled “Journalists in Delhi-
NCR receive identical messages threatening them with
Gauri Lankesh’s fate” (2017) was published only a few
days after Gauri Lankesh’s death- About four complaints
were filed in Noide regarding death threats they had
received over platforms like WhatsApp and phone calls.
They were warned that if they are critical about Modi
government the BJP and RSS shall not spare them and
“remove” them. Another journalist from the Quint
received rape and death threats for uploading a video in
which she was describing the lyrics of “Bol Na Aunty
Aau Kya” sexist, cheap and abusive. In the messages she
received, some unrelated to the song, explained why
Gauri was killed. The message said that Gauri was killed
because she rigorously wrote against Modi, BJP or RSS.
They called Gauri a traitor for doing so and tagged her as
anti-national and anti-hindu. They thought she was as
useless as the Muslims and they all shall be “removed”.
In one research article by Aritra Sarkhel (2017) titled
“India shut down internet 29 times in 2017” he
explained- It has become a norm to shutdown internet in
India. He has enlisted all the regions where the shutdown
has taken place along with the number of times, they
have taken place. The list includes Jammu and Kashmir
where there have been 10 cases of internet suspension
due to various incidents, in Rajasthan it has been 3 times,
in Haryana, 5, in Uttar Pradesh, 2, Madhya Pradesh, only
one, in Nagaland the mobile internet services were taken
down multiple times due to the clashes between the
urban and local bodies and the state government, in
Maharashtra the mobile internet service has been taken
down once in Nasik due to the state wide protest by the
farmers an in Odisha twice.
In an article by Abhishek Day on Press Freedom titled
“Journalists in Delhi-NCR receive identical messages
threatening them with Gauri Lankesh’s fate” he
mentions that several journalists have been getting rape
threats and death threats. Gauri Lankesh, 66, was the
editor in Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada weekly. She was
shot by unknown assailant outside her home on
September 5, 2017. The threat makers used this case as
an objective to threaten the other journalists of being
killed.
In one more article by Ani (2018) titled “Censor board
should be loyal to government not political parties:
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore- By denying allegations
against the government for interference and corruption
by former Censor board members, Union Minister of
State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan
Singh Rathore said that the Censor Board should be
loyal to the Government of India and not to any political
party per say. There was a huge controversy regarding
the the clearance of controversial film “Messenger of
God” citing interference, coercion and corruption of
panel members. (Kumar, A. (2019).
In one journal by Philip N Howard called “When Do
States Disconnect Their Digital Networks? Regime
Responses to the Political Uses of Social Media” (2011)
says- It is rare when the Internet or social media
networks are shut down in an area. However it happens
when the situation is so severe and sensitive that if not
globally, it concerns the political, economical and
cultural life. To find out the reason why such shut downs
take place, the authors build an event history database
and analyse them. The analysis indicates that the
democratic and authoritarian regimes disable social
media networks for reasons like national security,
protecting authority figures and preserving cultural and
religious morals. They stated that the social medias are
disabled to protect children and also to eliminate
propaganda on social media. what really matters, argue
many development experts, is what happens after people
are connected to technology. (Pathlavath, A, K, 2013).
In a journal by Ronald J. Deibert titled “Black Code:
Censorship, Surveillance, and the Militarisation of
Cyberspace” (2003) describes- The pressure from the
security and commercial sectors to regulate and control
the internet are beginning to alter its basic material to
determine activities of global civic networks and long-
term prospect for an open global communications
environment. The author stated that “Internet censorship
and surveillance becomes more widespread, and as states
begin to militarise cyberspace, a radically different
environment for global communications is emerging.
However, these changes are not uncontested. While not
having the influence over Internet security and design
issues that security and corporate actors do, a growing
number of civil society actors are merging with
politically minded computer scientists and engineers to
form policy networks and develop `hacktivist'
technologies designed to support self-expression,
privacy, and security for global civic networks”
Pre-2014 Era:
In 67 years of free India, Congress party had been in the
government for 54 years. Three Prime Ministers came
International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
81
from just one family (Nehru dynasty) who remained in
power for 37 years.
In these many years, strong nexus between Congress
politicians and mainstream media were initiated, favours
were exchanged, relationships were established and a
whole ecosystem was created.
If one were to look deeper,
• Shobhana Bhartia, daughter of Congress loyalist KK
Birla and herself a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha, is
the owner of Hindustan Times
• Bhaskar Ghose who was known to be close to Indira
and Rajiv Gandhi, was made the chief of
Doordarshan. His daughter Sagarika Ghose has been
associated with CNN-IBN, Times of India, Indian
Express and Outlook
• Karan Thapar associated with India Today and CNN-
IBN is related to Nehru family through marriage.
Sonia Singh, associated with NDTV, is the wife of
Congress leader RPN Singh
• No wonder that in 2009, Congress leader Kapil Sibal
had proudly declared that over 150 media
publications were owned by people affiliated with the
Congress party
Today, the Congress party effectively controls
everything that Indians hear, see and read. Consequently,
most of these channels and journalists tend to be so
blatantly biased in favour of Congress and against their
political opponents BJP that they don’t even pretend to
appear neutral.
1. Elections coverage:
• When Congress wins an election
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/defaultinterstitial.cms
• When BJP wins an election
Source: www.hindustantimes.in; Business Standard newspaper
2. How Government actions and policies are
reported:
• The social practice of Instant Triple Talaq in Muslim
community, which is banned in most Islamic
countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Egypt
has been the bane of many Muslim women in India
till today
• Hence, BJP’s bill to make it punishable should
ideally be welcomed as a step in the right direction
• Shockingly, the Editorial in “The Hindu” plays it
down and calls it counter-productive
• It only starts making sense when one realises –
• BJP government doing something favourable for
Muslim community goes against Congress’s
narrative of “Modi is anti-Muslim”
• By downplaying BJP’s move, Malini Parthasarathy,
Chairperson of “The Hindu” group is supporting her
close “friend” Sonia Gandhi of Congress
Source: Twitter
3. Reporting political appointments with “Caste”
accusations:
• A mature society should recognise people by their
merit. A responsible media should contribute in
eliminating caste system from Indian society. But
these journalists deliberately bring up “caste” of the
office bearers in every appointment by BJP
• When someone from the so called “upper” caste is
appointed, they slam BJP for ignoring the lower
castes
• When someone from the so called “lower” caste is
appointed, they slam BJP for caste appeasement
• Nothing that the government does can be deemed
right, if the journalists follow “heads I win, tails you
lose”
International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
82
Source: Twitter
4. Issues related to religion:
• Spreading cheer when Muslim citizens are fasting is
normal, but why spread negativity about fasting on
Hindu festivals and call it “regressive”
• Rajput community getting offended by a movie is
mocked, but Muslim community getting offended by
a cartoon is vociferously justified
• Whether “feelings getting hurt” by a movie or
cartoon is justifiable or not is decided by the religion
involved.
Source: Twitter
5. Reporting communal incidents:
• When victim happens to be a Hindu, they tone it
down and represent the voice of logic, sanity and
reason
• When victim happens to be a Muslim, they indulge in
loud exaggerations and almost inciting riots
• All loss of lives are deplorable, but selective outrage
depending on the religion of victim creates an
environment of fear in minorities against the regime
Source: Twitter
Post-2014 Era:
• In 2014, BJP formed the government in centre, for
only the second time in history. They were faced
with the mountainous task of countering this huge
media machinery that was spewing only Congress’s
narrative against BJP. They decided to beat Congress
at their own game
• Zee group’s owner Subhash Chandra was nominated
to Rajya Sabha with BJP’s support. Republic TV was
funded by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a BJP MP in Rajya
Sabha
• Ideally, the media should be free from any bias, but
the real world is not ideal
• The fourth pillar of “world’s largest democracy” is
highly biased. Republic and Zee are believed to serve
the interest of Right Wing. Every other media house
is biased in favour of the Leftists and Congress
• Biased media is an unfortunate reality across the
globe – as per Pew’s research, media in Australia and
US is perceived to be even less fair than India’s
• In such a situation, it is rational to not blindly trust
everything that you see, hear or read. The
responsibility to explore facts and ascertain truth
comes down to the individuals like us.
METHEDOLOGY:
Being a citizen of such a large democracy, everyone of
us having certain rights and freedoms, we should have
the liberty to know, listen to, speak about everything
freely. The Indian media is suppose to help us know
about the happenings of our country and that information
shall not be be forged. For the betterment o this country,
the politicising of the new and also its censorship from
the people should be checked and taken care of. This
study will help the public know how the media
companies work in our country and what changes are to
be done for the betterment of India.
This study would involve the use of both primary and
secondary techniques of data collection. Primary data
will be incorporated by the use of an online survey
through a questionnaire. This questionnaire will be
distributed to 208 respondents whose responses will be
recorded and analysed with the help of statical tools like
correlation and IBM SPSS. The target audience will be
people of age 18 above, probably people between the
ages of 18-55. This target audience involves majorly the
youth of the nation and responses from well-informed
and knowledgeable adults will also be incorporated. The
questionnaire was also be distributed to some experts in
the field as their opinions will be of high importance.
The target area will involve the Bangalore and areas
nearby.
Another method that is used to attain the primary data is
by group discussions. Group Discussion includes people
with common interest or issues. They come out with
their ideas and opinions over a particular topic. Each
group consisted of 5-6 members. There were 7 such
groups each having one session of discussion. The
International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
83
analysis of the answers are highly qualitative. Each
question focuses on a few repetitive ideas, those will be
recorded. Identification of the idea that is being repeated
again and again is noted. A series of critical thinking and
analysis is done over the recurring ideas to identify the
theme. Then the ‘findings’ are written as a narrative
describing the ideas and their themes. The participants
were very enthusiastic to share their opinions. They had
a lot to speak over the Indian media and its working.
The next method includes personal interviews. In an
interview, participants are asked certain questions related
to the topic and are asked to answer only if they are
comfortable. They had the option not to answer a
question. However, none of the questions remains
unanswered by any of the participants. The interviews
are performed over people within different range of ages.
Interviews of some special experts regarding the
research topic shall be recorded. A renowned expert who
has been interviewed is the the former CBI Director Mr.
Anil Kumar Sinha who updated us with how and why is
there censorship of media and its requirement in today’s
scenario. The target number shall be around 10-15
interviews, including the experts.
Secondary data is incorporated through books, journals,
online articles, newspapers and majorly by the use of
case studies that already exist. One such case that will be
studied is the 24-hour ban on NDTV by Information and
Broadcasting Ministry. The reaction of the citizens will
also be taken in account over such cases.
The reason for having an online survey is that now a
days people use their phone all through out their day. An
online survey is a method of circulating a questionnaire
online. The target audience can easily answer it over the
internet within minutes, according to their own free time.
It is easy for them to take out a couple of minutes to
answer the questions in the survey and their answer can
easily get recorded and analysed with the help of google
forms. This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to
record responses. Having young people included in the
target audience, they are the ones who would prefer to
have an online survey answered than any other form.
Despite, the easy method, some questions need more
depth and some greater insights within the answers for
which Personal Interviews seem to be the best form to
record responses. Also, to have various opinions and vast
ideas about the same topic, a group discussion shall help
in getting answers. A group discussion can let
participants think in a broader way.
DATA COLLECTION:
The data collected is primary data collected from online
surveys and personal interviews from a total of 208
respondents. The data collected is as follows: During the
personal interviews and group discussions, most
participants brought out similar beliefs regarding the
working of media houses and the journalists. A few
themes that were highlighted were national security,
empowerment, secularism, freedom of speech, right to
choose and right to correct information. Participants
thought that censorship of media is necessary but only to
a certain extent. They felt that the Press of India does not
seem to be free as they usually bring us their own
version of news and they seem to constantly be under
political dominance, control and influence. They either
get paid to do so or they are forced to do so out of the
fear of losing their jobs or lives. When asked upto what
extent should the media censor itself, the participants
had different answers. But the ones that contain most
validity were information related to defence operations
and informations of India, extreme sexual content,
controversial language usage such that taunting a
particular community of people.
The participants thought that the information regarding
the government, crimes, scandals, protests and so on
should come out as it is without being opinionated by the
reporters. They should just tell us what has happened and
what is the real scenario. A few participants also
believed that some reporters write news with religious
bias against political parties. Not just that, journalists
have judged and shamed several people on talk shows on
the name of freedom of speech or due to the support of
their media company and influence of political parties.
For example, in an interview a political journalist
Bhupendra Chaubey from CNN IBN invited Sunny
Leone for an interview. Thinking that she would be
questioned about her professional life and her upcoming
movies, she went ahead for the interview.
However, the journalist started slut shaming her already
for her past profession and her personal life. She was
highly embarrassed with the kind of questions being
asked. Later, several famous personalities tweeted in
support of Sunny. In such cases, media too should have
some sort of filtration in their questions. The media
should totally have the right to provide us with
appropriate information. But they should not take
advantage of the power they have by shaming or
insulting people they call for interviews or panel
discussions. When asked about how the journalist’s lives
are in danger if and when they work outside the norms
set by powerful people, one participant said, “It is really
sad that our journalists have no voice really. They have
to alter every news they receive before providing it to the
public.
The political parties, for their own benefits or to hide
their infamous deeds scare the journalists to not publish
International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
84
the stories. They put forward a barricade in their work
and leave them helpless. When some journalist who are
highly committed to their work type and are willing to
bring out the reality in front of the world, in several
cases, they are killed in most mysterious ways possible.
This needs to change. The journalists should have their
own voice without being afraid.” Participants strongly
believe that the government should take steps not only to
empower out women but also all journalists by letting
them have their basic right to work with utmost loyalty
and commitment and bring out the real stories. Some
participants focused on censoring only extreme sexual
content such as pornographic images and videos from
television and some other participants believed that If it
portrays some kind of art or is used for educational
purpose to spread awareness about sex education then,
given in these instances, that too should be allowed. But
most people believe that the news that is to be censored
shall only be when it is regarding national security or
any operation taken up by the defence ministry of India
for safety purposes. Such confidentiality can be
maintained as it is necessary. But the media should not
try and hide “Powerful” people’s crimes, scams and
other offensive actions breaking the laws. This is only
unjust to the citizens of the country and is a disgrace to
our own constitution.
DATA ANALYSIS:
The data collected from the survey was put into charts to
get a better understanding of the data. The explanation is
as under:
Chart 4.1: showing the sources of news
In the above chart the sources of news of our 208
respondents has been shown to get a better understand
and a good comparison to make it easier to interpret. The
table shows that for a majority of our respondents, the
news source is Newspapers, TV and Radio and the
second preferred option is News Apps and Podcasts.
Which makes news from Facebook post and pages like
ScoopWhoop the least preferred option followed by
informational messages on WhatsApp.
According to the survey, 55.3% of our respondents
prefer newspaper that is 115 respondents and only 40
respondents prefer News Apps and Comments.
Chart 4.2: showing views of the people on whether the news is
censored
The above chart shows people’s perception on whether
the news we receive is censored, politicised or biased. A
huge number of our respondents believe it is true, our
news is actually censored, politicised and biased. Some
of the people are not sure about it whereas a very low
number says that it is not censored and that what we
receive is the actual and the only truth.
Where 54% of the people believe that the above
statement is true, a very less number of 8.7% people
believe that what we receive is the unbiased and un-
politicised truth.
Chart 4.3: showing the respondent’s views on if they get influenced
by the way the news is being reported
The above chart shows whether our respondents form
their opinions or get influenced by the way the news is
being reported by the reporter or by the way they portray
the news. A good number of our respondents do not get
influenced by the way the news is being reported and
have the capabilities to analyse the information and form
their own opinions and views. The number of people
who do not get influenced are the 44% of our total
respondents where as the people who do get influenced
are a close of 28%. The rest of the people do not know
yet if they do or do not get influenced.
International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
85
Chart 4.4: showing that the reporters are threatened by
political/anti-political sources
A very large number of people believe that yes, news
reporters are actually threatened by powerful people who
tend to politicize the news that is being delivered to us.
Whereas a very less number of people believe that they
are not threatened.
Going by these analysis, we see that a huge majority of
people believe that the news we receive is censored and
also that the reporters do live under the threat of
powerful parties and people. Which brings it to mind that
maybe our news is corrupted and censored because our
reporters don’t have full freedom to express their views,
they have to keep it censored under the threat of these
parties.
A total of 60.1% people believe that the reporters do get
threatened to dot let the news reach out to the public of
the nation.
Chart 4.5: showing if threats to reporters lead to censorship in our
news
The above chart shows the if our respondents think the
threats from powerful people/parties lead to lack of
freedom of speech or censorship in the news delivered to
us. We can see on the chart that a lot of people do
believe that the statement in question is indeed true
compared to a very low number of people believing that
it is false. Statistics show that 61.5% of the people
believe that the statement in question is true and have
responded with a Yes. And a few people i.e. 16.3% of
the people believe that the statement in question is false.
Chart 4.6; showing how reliable do people think the news sources
are
The above table shows the reliability of the news we get
from the sources mentioned above. People believe that
their news sources are mostly reliable showing a hint of
hesitation. Because they are not sure if it is actually
reliable. 54% people believe that their news sources are
pretty much reliable which is also what they are
guessing. And the least number of people believe that it
is completely or highly reliable as seen in the table
above.
Analysing the data collected from the personal
interviews and group discussions we see that a lot of
people believe that the news we receive is politicised,
biased and censored where they also believe that
censorship is required to a certain extent as in case of
26/11 Mumbai attacks where news reporters were
covering the live segment and broadcasting the locations
of our soldiers and police officer which turned out to be
a great help for the terrorists as they could escape
because of the news telecast. But the news we receive is
highly politicised because of the fear of powerful people
is also a strong view that a lot of people in the group
discussions and personal interviews held.
CONCLUSION:
Our country is known as the largest democracy. Yet we
see there is a lot of violations being made to several
rights and freedoms of citizens. With the help of the data
collected we see that the people themselves are mostly
aware of the reality of India- the media, their rights and
the violations being made. It is not a secret anymore that
the media houses work under the political dominance.
They in fact are bring out the news as if they are their
own versions. They write or post in favour of the
political parties or entities that are influencing them.
They show them in the good light even after how much
ever they have been wrong. We have seen that even after
BJP was a clear winner post election, mainstream
newspapers like the Hindustan Time and Business
International J. Advances in Social Sciences 8(3): July- September 2020
86
Standard wrote it in such a way that they do not defame
their persuaded party, The Congress. This is just one
example of how the media is being censored or
politicised. There have been several times when other
journalists have wanted to come out with real stories and
they have been injured, threatened or murdered. This
completely violates the freedom of speech and
expression with accordance to fear. Scenario today of the
Indian Press is not great. However, having a smart bunch
of youth there shall be slow yet a steady change in the
future.
To start with bringing in the change in the fair
circulation of news, we need to first have the journalist
some sense of power and freedom of speech. If it is the
fear that catches them to not bring out the real story,
there can be an online portal for the same where the
journalist posts their articles in the truest forms
anonymously. The Press of India should take incharge of
this portal and all journalists working for it, should have
an internal and secretive team for the checking of
credibility of news before posting it. This shall not only
help the journalists to stay away from threats but it shall
also give the people a fair idea of the real news.
The censorship of news shall be done by the Press of
India too. The news should be censored only if it is the
case of national security where the information is related
to the defence operations and other major conspiracies
for the protection of our country or if some content is
highly sexual or has the usage of vulgar language. The
news however shall remain the same without it being
touched. The people have the right to know about their
leaders, the government, the schemes, the policies, the
other news related to any crime or entertainment. But it
should all be true and not biased. Only then can the
people of our country have proper rights to form their
own opinions. This shall also help in having fairer
elections and better leaders leading to a greater country.
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