Press accountability: Is the Andhra CM overreacting?

| Last updated less than one minute ago

Submit :

News Photos Just In Debate Topic Latest News Articles Local News Blog Posts Pictures Reviews Recipes

S Shivakumar

02 July, 2008

If newspapers distort facts, the aggrieved party can bring it to their notice and seek an apology. If the aggrieved party approaches the police to lodge a complaint, the police should act strictly in accordance with the spirit of the law.

THE ANDHRA Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy has slammed the two Telugu dailies, viz., 'Andhra Jyothi' and 'Eenadu' for allegedly distorting a recent 'Transparency International India' report on corruption in the country. His picking on the two dailies has been taken with a pinch of salt in view of his government’s track record vis-à-vis the fourth estate. The arrest of two scribes and editor of ‘Andhra Jyothi’ attracted criticism with the CM’s own police department unable to defend its action in the matter.

He said if accountability was important for everybody, it should be important for the media too. He questioned why the Press should be allowed to write and present news the way it wished and condemned the two newspapers for distorting facts with a view to misleading the public. The CM made these observations after laying the foundation stone for the construction of an exclusive building for the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau. He used the occasion to explain how the two newspapers had distorted the ‘Transparency International India’ report on corruption in the country. The Transparency International India and the Centre for Media Studies had jointly carried out a country-wide survey. The survey found that the very poor in India coughed up Rs 9,00 crore as bribe to get basic government services. The figure of Rs 900 crores applied to the entire country but the report was presented in such a manner as to give the impression that the bribing occurred in Andhra Pradesh alone. Incidentally, the state figured in the category of the least corrupt states in the survey. The newspapers had used the Hyderabad dateline although the story originated from New Delhi.

The CM is dead right in maintaining that accountability was important for the media too. The Press should not write and present news the way it wished. But, if it did, the affected party could always seek legal redress. So, why should the CM personally take it upon himself? Legal redress had always been available in the country in such matters. The court alone could decide if the Press presented the news the right way or the wrong way. If the aggrieved party complained to the police, the police should act in consonance with the provisions of the law. Going overboard or misusing or abusing the provisions of the law would not be in order on the part of the police and by extension, the government. If the newspapers distorted facts with a view to misleading the public, the aggrieved party, even if it were the government, could always bring it to the notice of the erring newspaper and ask it to tender an unqualified apology. Meanwhile, if the aggrieved party approached the police to lodge a complaint, the police should act strictly in accordance with the letter as well as the spirit of the law. If the law was vague, the police should err on the side of caution. If the newspaper in question did not view as distorted what the aggrieved party viewed as distorted, the court of law would take a call on it. The police and by extension, the government, should not take the law into its own hands and sit in judgement over the matter.