Massacre of Journalism in India
Nava Thakuria
March 05, 2008
Northeast India has turned in to a land of happenings. From insurgency to ethnic tension and economic activities to cultural discourses, it started drawing the attention of media worldwide. The alienated region of the country has suddenly woken up to an anniversary of a massacre that took place 25 years back in Assam. A senior Indian journalist released a book on the issue in the national capital recently and suddenly a group of reporters began to pile up their reporting space with the memory of the carnage. Many of them even did not bother to check the old information while putting those in their fresh columns (as might be nobody bothers about Northeast).
Meet Nitin A Gokhale, the Senior Editor, Defence and Strategic Affairs of NDTV (New Delhi), who has recently contributed a column for the portal of the satellite channel (http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/showcolumns.aspx?id=COLEN20080042819). But out of callousness, the editor-journalist copied and pasted more than 70% of the text from one of his earlier articles, released by an Indian portal (http://www.tehelka.com/story_main13.asp?filename=Ne070205The_simple.asp) three years back. He even used the same quotes, where one of them was a local Panchyat member. Assam had the Panchyat election three months back, but Nitin did not bother to check his present status (whether he was re-elected this time). More over the entire situation was re-created for Nitin ( must be by God) when he had recently visited, Nellie, the place of carnage.
It may be mentioned that Nellie, a sleepy village of middle Assam witnessed a horrifying massacre of thousands of Muslims in 1983. The village, nearly 90 km away from Guwahati became a center of Media attraction during the period, when the Assam agitation led by All Assam Students Union reached the peak. It was the time, when New Delhi imposed an election in the state against the will of the indigenous people. The memory of Nellie massacre still haunts the Assamese psyche irrespective of caste, creed and religion.
But surprisingly enough, this sensitive issue was also taken for manufacturing stories by the journalist, who used to stay in Assam for some time. Now based in New Delhi, Nitin had contributed a piece for NDTV with his three years old information. His column (with an 'I-Know-All' air) titled 'Nellie revisited: 25 years on' uploaded on Saturday (March 1), tends to analyze the situation after his recent visit to the location. The writer also described the consequences of the carnage and its implication on today's changing demographic pattern in the state. But leaving aside first few paragraphs of the write up on NDTV portal, the entire text was simply added form an earlier article (by him of course) used by Tehelka. In fact, besides a little introduction of the Nellie massacre in reference to a book release by Hemendra Narayan in New Delhi recently, Nitin picked up his old text with minor updating.
The journalist picked up all the quotes (as he did three years back), and used for his March 1 piece on NDTV. One of his quotes (Mohammed Nuruddin Munshi, the all-powerful leader of the community in the area) described, "We now number about 12,000-14,000 as against barely 3,000-odd in 1983." The old article contained the same line with the same description. So the man must took help of his memory to reveal the precise statistics to Nitin 'during a recent visit to Nellie'. The next quote (Suruj Konwar, a veterinary department employee) said exactly the same thing to Nitin as it was reported in 1983.
The editor provided some space to elaborate the profile of Nuruddin, who was 'then a 20-year-old having just completed his schooling in Arabic' and later 'began taking active interest in politics'. The next lines say, "Today he is the member of the Anchalik Parishad and a leader of the community." The old article (uploaded in July 2005) also described Nuruddin as the member of the Anchalik Parishad (a part of Panchyati Raj system in India). So he must have been re-elected in the Panchyat polls of Assam that took place during December and January 2007. But there is no mention about it. It simply implies that Nitin does not care about the authenticity of a quote in his column.
The NDTV editor was communicated with his personal e-mail address as well as official feedback format, but no response was coming out from him.
Now the pertinent question that arises, whether a journalist is allowed to manufacture quotes for his write ups those might speak biased information? Moreover, is anyone is permitted to copy and paste almost 80% of his own write up, even though the situation had been changed in three long years. Are these not a clear case of unpardonable offence by the NDTV editor, which could definitely hurt the moral and ethical values of journalism?
The author is a Guwahati (Northeast India) based independent journalist and can be contacted at navathakuria@gmail.com
Meet Nitin A Gokhale, the Senior Editor, Defence and Strategic Affairs of NDTV (New Delhi), who has recently contributed a column for the portal of the satellite channel (http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/showcolumns.aspx?id=COLEN20080042819). But out of callousness, the editor-journalist copied and pasted more than 70% of the text from one of his earlier articles, released by an Indian portal (http://www.tehelka.com/story_main13.asp?filename=Ne070205The_simple.asp) three years back. He even used the same quotes, where one of them was a local Panchyat member. Assam had the Panchyat election three months back, but Nitin did not bother to check his present status (whether he was re-elected this time). More over the entire situation was re-created for Nitin ( must be by God) when he had recently visited, Nellie, the place of carnage.
It may be mentioned that Nellie, a sleepy village of middle Assam witnessed a horrifying massacre of thousands of Muslims in 1983. The village, nearly 90 km away from Guwahati became a center of Media attraction during the period, when the Assam agitation led by All Assam Students Union reached the peak. It was the time, when New Delhi imposed an election in the state against the will of the indigenous people. The memory of Nellie massacre still haunts the Assamese psyche irrespective of caste, creed and religion.
But surprisingly enough, this sensitive issue was also taken for manufacturing stories by the journalist, who used to stay in Assam for some time. Now based in New Delhi, Nitin had contributed a piece for NDTV with his three years old information. His column (with an 'I-Know-All' air) titled 'Nellie revisited: 25 years on' uploaded on Saturday (March 1), tends to analyze the situation after his recent visit to the location. The writer also described the consequences of the carnage and its implication on today's changing demographic pattern in the state. But leaving aside first few paragraphs of the write up on NDTV portal, the entire text was simply added form an earlier article (by him of course) used by Tehelka. In fact, besides a little introduction of the Nellie massacre in reference to a book release by Hemendra Narayan in New Delhi recently, Nitin picked up his old text with minor updating.
The journalist picked up all the quotes (as he did three years back), and used for his March 1 piece on NDTV. One of his quotes (Mohammed Nuruddin Munshi, the all-powerful leader of the community in the area) described, "We now number about 12,000-14,000 as against barely 3,000-odd in 1983." The old article contained the same line with the same description. So the man must took help of his memory to reveal the precise statistics to Nitin 'during a recent visit to Nellie'. The next quote (Suruj Konwar, a veterinary department employee) said exactly the same thing to Nitin as it was reported in 1983.
The editor provided some space to elaborate the profile of Nuruddin, who was 'then a 20-year-old having just completed his schooling in Arabic' and later 'began taking active interest in politics'. The next lines say, "Today he is the member of the Anchalik Parishad and a leader of the community." The old article (uploaded in July 2005) also described Nuruddin as the member of the Anchalik Parishad (a part of Panchyati Raj system in India). So he must have been re-elected in the Panchyat polls of Assam that took place during December and January 2007. But there is no mention about it. It simply implies that Nitin does not care about the authenticity of a quote in his column.
The NDTV editor was communicated with his personal e-mail address as well as official feedback format, but no response was coming out from him.
Now the pertinent question that arises, whether a journalist is allowed to manufacture quotes for his write ups those might speak biased information? Moreover, is anyone is permitted to copy and paste almost 80% of his own write up, even though the situation had been changed in three long years. Are these not a clear case of unpardonable offence by the NDTV editor, which could definitely hurt the moral and ethical values of journalism?
The author is a Guwahati (Northeast India) based independent journalist and can be contacted at navathakuria@gmail.com
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