A hand that needs to stretch out to take can never hold a pen that it can wield for the common man. In this day and age, the phrase freedom of the press has new contexts and meanings. A free press needs to be free of burdens, and challenges to keep its people and systems up and running, to deliver for the society and the people it serves.
When is the media strong? When its readers are consumers, as well as partners in serving the people
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A strong voice needs to be a confident voice knowing that the people it serves has its back in every which way. Over the years both the shape and the reflexes of the media have undergone a change. Its fundamental purpose to serve the truth, reflect opinions and shape opinions based on a healthy cross section of views from across and diverse platforms.
But the press can do this freely, (as indeed some credible, mostly digital platforms are doing with their own set of challenges) when it has two things going. Firstly it has to have a one-to-one relationship with its readers and the larger society, both as consumers and as servants of the people.
Secondly, each word that this free press writes becomes a weapon for its readers to build a strong honest system of governance, aimed at service to the common man. This weapon can be used to give voice to the people, make the system deliver on basics like health, education farming, self-employment, mobility, transport environment, a string economy, ease of doing business and above all, the eradication of corruption.
Civilizations have been made with great newspapers
To understand this, one must understand the age-old relationship between the people and the press. Then press is simply the people’s voice and it makes that voice stronger by arming the people with information and knowledge for them to for opinions. Many of those who are reading this would remember that from the time that they got their senses, the newspaper has been a constant morning companion, who would be visited several times during the day.
When you grew up, your day started with newspapers, your window to the world
Then morning conversations among family members would start with news and views in the paper that came home. Across India the image of the father or grandfather sitting on his easy chair with a cup of tea or coffee reading the papers, is a household memory in the minds of millions of Indians as well as tens of millions in the world.
There are so many whose education has shaped newspapers right from the time when they learnt the language as a child, prepared for competitive examinations as a young adult and then as a professional preparing for job interviews.
Ask any IFS, IAS or IPS officer in the country. Their journey to the coveted civil services examinations has been on the bedrock of newspaper reading. Sadly the very newspapers they undermine try or control or even harass, are those that they have grown up reading and the very same papers they read and followed to crack the examination which made them officers of the highest order in the first place.
Can you ever control or suppress or humiliate, the media that has shaped you, nurtured you sustained you into the position of power and influence that you have now?
The free press is a weapon of harmony
The free press is also a weapon of harmony loaded with bullets of humanity and togetherness. When the press and people, who mean well for their state, nation and society get together, the battle against hatred, divisiveness and all other divides will be well and truly won.
Some of the biggest challenges in front of us, can be overcome by a PPT model People and Press for Truth
It is simple. For the words of the media to become a weapon of truth, a “People and Press for Truth” (PPT) model has to work and ways have to be found to make this work. It can work though a trust that manages people’s grants, or through university fellowships funded by people’s contributions with a credible panel, trusted by the people deciding on the quantum to be given to different media against goals and milestones.
That contribution can be for one media or even a cluster of credible media. It can be done district wise state wise, regional wise or even nation wise; the smallest paper serving remote villages to a regional paper or even a national one.
Different approaches can be found. But ultimately, the media gets it power and the people get their accountability. Going back to the age-old tradition of people coming together for a cause, this has to happen.
The press is a society saving antidote, People must sustain it with all kinds of support
People’s movement and not anti-government movements, are for the upkeep of the constitution in letter and spirit. The press by definition has to be with a people’s movement which is for a just cause. But if people and the press are partners, then press has to be sustained so that the media is free of any external pressures to avail of support to keep their businesses ruining smoothly. It must also be seen as a critical service and a society saving antidote.
People backed media is the only solution
This holds true not just for India but all over the word. The media is under a lot of pressure and its challenges are mounting from the Far East to Africa to Europe. Everywhere there is only solution – People backed media
It will not be an exaggeration to say that strong free media is an essential service and it must be treated as such. If a society is willing to put aside a little something to stock up on essential supplies or life saving drugs or even a proper first aid kit, or a steady supply for fresh fruit and vegetables for sustenance, or a comprehensive health insurance for the family, the same principles apply if a free press has to be brought home.
When every home is a philanthropic institution or a media foundation, the press has no worry
The people are not just consumers of news. A free press makes them stronger. Therefore, if each home is a supporter of the free press, independent newspapers digital and TV media do not need foundations or philanthropic institutions. Every home becomes an institution.
There are several reasons why a free press is needed for your voice to be heard. But it is best to present a fresh and the latest example coming out from the only other institution that gives us hope in this democracy, the Judiciary.
Journalist Siddique Kappan got bail from the Supreme Court after two years. He was arrested for a “crime” for travelling to Hathras in UP to cover a story of a Dalit woman who was gangraped by four upper caste men. The police accused him of intending to start a caste-based riot and create communal disharmony followed by sedition and money laundering charges. Giving him bail the Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice S Ravindra stated “He (Reporter Kappan) is (was) trying to show that the victim needs justice and raise a common voice. IS THAT A CRIME IN THE EYES OF THE LAW?”
Mark these words by none other than the Chief Justice of India and his brother judge. They asked if trying to show that a victim needs justice (or in other words fighting for justice) a crime in the eyes of the law. It is not. It never can be.
A free press is not just your need, but your responsibility, so empowering it will make you empowered to have the governance you deserve
Your press is your pride. When you ensure that the press never has moment of weakness or uncertainly or even doubt whether it will be able to be your voice, hold truth to power and be a protector of your rights; you learn to guard democracy.
