Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Ashish Khetan: New-age Indian media ignoring investigative journalism


Ashish Khetan is an investigative journalist who exposed the men behind the Gujarat massacre of 2002. He carried this brave sting operation over a six-month period, risking his life to bring the grisly facts to light.

In conversation with Ashish Khetan...

One year ago, Noam Chomsky opined that the Indian media was in great crisis. He even said the media in Pakistan was more vibrant than the Indian media. When it comes to ethics, where do the Indian media stand?

I would agree with the first part of Chomsky’s statement that the Indian media is in great crisis; it is in crisis in terms of its principles, ethics, values, what they do, priorities they have, their philosophy. Whichever way you look at the Indian media, you can see that there is a rapid decline, and it is going further down.

Only 1% of the population of this country is the super-elite, but they are controlling media ownership, news agenda and the Indian media caters to their interest and not to the interest of the 99% of the people of India. We have seen the recent episode involving Zee News and Naveen Jindal, where Zee News was caught extorting money to drop certain stories or to go soft on some stories against Jindal. Not carrying stories against their advertisers and equity holders is one thing; the media carrying untruthful stories in favour of their advertisers and their equity holders is another thing.

The electronic media, in particular, lack ethics – they jump into conclusions and carry stories without giving the other party the right to be heard. They are too judgemental, and there is a clear prejudice against the minorities, tribals and rural population .I think it goes on and on about the lack of ethics in Indian media, but these are some broad areas which are disturbing.

What are the challenges an investigative journalist has to face when compared to other streams of journalism? 
Investigative journalism is really challenging. When it comes to political reporting, a reporter is supposed to give a good analysis or a good perspective of a political situation or a political personality or has to identify political trends . What makes investigative journalism different from other aspects of journalism are the following:
1. You are trying to uncover something which others are trying to hide; this is the most difficult part. You have to alert some on some information and there are other set of people who have some vested interest on some particular issue. The administration and the establishment are working against you and they will create hurdles in your path by blocking the information.
2. There is a kind of disinterest among the new-age editors and new-age proprietors. They are no longer interested in time-consuming and resource-consuming news stories .They are more interested in two-minute-noodles journalism.
3. The threat of physical violence: The element of physical threat and the element of risk are high in this stream of journalism. We have often seen how investigative journalists in some states are treated – they have been targeted by the mining lobbies, and, at times, by the state as well.

What are the things that an investigative journalist should keep in mind?
1. Perseverance: You have to persevere and not give up because investigative stories are not easy to come by. It really requires hard work and perseverance.
2. Commitment: Once you have identified that there is a story, then you have to follow it to its logical conclusion
3. Hard work and time: You should be ready to go through volumes and volumes of documents and the willingness to meet as many people as you can, ready to put hard work and long hours.
4. Be transparent.
5. Feel for the poor.

What do you think of the quality of young journalists passing out of different media institutions in our country?
Journalism is one thing that cannot be taught in any institutions. You can never be taught to become a good investigative journalist – either you have it or not have it. However, media institutions help in laying the foundation for their future work. I don’t want to comment on the quality.

What is your advice to an aspiring investigative journalist?

You have to take this as a mission .If you just want name, fame and money, then I think you are on the wrong domain of journalism. If you see any wrong thing done against the marginalised, then you have to raise your voice for them. You should have fire in your belly to be the voice of the voiceless.


PC: gulail.com
Article first appeared in 2013 February issue of Education Insider magazine

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