Is the free press really “free” in India?

Last Updated on June 12, 2023

Reporters without borders(RSF), which has consultative status at the UN and UNESCO, evaluates how free is press relative to other countries in the world. They publish a ranking list every year. In their first year of evaluation, in 2002, India stood at 80th place among 139 countries. In 2005, of the 169 countries evaluated, it fell to 106th. In the span of 10 years, at the end of Manmohan Singh’s government, in 2014, of the 180 countries evaluated, India’s rank had fallen to 140th place. Now, in 2022, after 8 years of Narendra Modi’s government, of the 180 countries evaluated, it has again fallen to 150th place. Freedom of the press is slowly eroded and so are the standards of journalism. There are many countries with little to no democratic government ranking higher than India.

How has India got to this place? What made the situation worse for journalism? To answer these questions it is important to look at how media is controlled and operated in India.

The constitution doesn’t say there should be only state-media – giving the government exclusive right to publish news like the exclusive right to broadcast a sports event by a TV channel. This allows anyone to take up the profession of journalism including private individuals and institutions. Therefore, in theory, at least “the press is free”. The free press acts as the fourth pillar of democracy to hold government, public officials, and people in power to account. This is very much important for any democracy to survive. So, here, the constitution places a strict limit on political greed so that government doesn’t have the exclusive right to publish news. Yet, India’s situation has become only worse in the last 2 decades.

On the other hand, India prides itself on having more than 1 Lakh(0.1 million) registered publications and over 500+ TV news channels. In reality, the ownership of the news media market in India is heavily concentrated. Clearly, news media has become a monopoly in terms of the scope of news, issues, and ideologies covered. Holding the power to account is almost never seen, be it any kind of power – political, economic, or community power. If there is anything, it is only affirming the narratives of power, and even cozying and sucking up to power.

When media is not seen holding power to account, it is also not seen representing the views of the weaker sections of society – working class, economically or socially lower class, poor, women, marginalized/oppressed, etc. One of the main reasons for this is that these media companies are owned by larger companies or corporates who have other business interests or political interests. They own these companies to set their own narratives and selectively show news that serves their interests.

Almost all of the media have turned into opinion media. They don’t even try to cover a news story objectively without adding their subjective opinion. Using words so emotionally-charged makes you remember the emotions rather than content, and sound effects are so worse you rather watch an apocalyptic movie than the news, and graphics or visual effects are so intense, dynamic, and hypnotic that you are superglued to the screen even if the letters are shows upside down. This is the current state of news media in India – A melodramatic reality show. Somehow, they always have to show some breaking news all the time. Can they not get a break from “breaking news”? They are so addicted to it that even if they catch a break from “breaking news”, after the break, they would cover the break they just had under a new “breaking news”.

People commonly say that if you want to watch “only” news – meaning “Journalistic objectivity” then tune into DD Chandana(DD1). Otherwise, if you want only Masala – partisan political commentary, then private news channels. Ironically, people trust state-media – DD Chandana more than private companies for non-partisan factual coverage of news. It means the government-run-media is more free than private run media. The whole point that press/media can be independent from government so that they can do unbiased reporting is largely lost. However, there are some exceptions – hardly few independent journalists in internet through their Articles and Youtube Channels are still holding up as “free press” as it was intended in constitution for the survival of democracy. Even if they are covering something with their perspective, they are upfront and open about it. So, they are not fooling anyone with their biased reporting.

The people in mainstream media put up a fake concern that they really care about the ordinary citizens or the “common man”. They do this by bringing together people with different backgrounds and expertise “in the hopes of finding a solution” in a discussion or a debate. But, the limits of discussion and debate are already set well before even they start.

Debates are the best cheaply produced reality shows one can watch for. No one in these debates respects each other time. Panel members yell and talk over each other all the time. Moderators are so weak they don’t lead debates but debates leads them. Moderators don’t intervene but only do so to ask a more controversial question to add fuel to the fire. I have never seen a single productive debate. Selling their goods in a crowded market, you can hear vendors better than these panelists. An barking dog can be silenced but not these people. But, I do think there is a way to restore peace in these debates – each panel member must be given- a couple of hand grenades and an AK-47.

When media can not make the “not worthy of a news” into the news with their rhetoric, Masala, and reality show format, they engage in covering news or, I like to call it, providing content whose only intention is to distract the people – middle class and poor from really answering the questions – why are they middle class and poor in the first place? What are their issues? is it a personal problem or a social problem? How much of it is social problem? is addressing them as a person, individually enough? does the free market competition solve the problem? does human cooperation solve the problem more effectively? what can we do politically, socially, economically, and culturally to address them?

The companies that own mainstream media are the same companies that fund political parties and candidates. Sometimes, it is the same business person who holds a position of political power. Nearly ~90%(475 out of 539) of Loka Sabha members are Crorepatis. Nearly half of the MPs, one in two members, have assets worth more than Rs 5 crores. This goes to show that the political class – whose primary interest is supposed to serve people has turned into profiting off of people – Business people. Of course, They couldn’t pull this off without having media on their side.

They use media to manipulate reality. They do this by setting narratives, propaganda – misinformation and disinformation campaigns, or simply selectively choosing not to cover news that helps people that requires politicians to compromise on their personal/vested interest – economical or more power. They want to make people believe that they are in fact serving people, at the same, not really doing so. They exaggerate the importance of trivial issues while not really giving any air time to important ones. They use social issues to divide people up and pit them against each other based on religion, caste, politics, etc. This way they create more tension between communities and this tension gets even more people to watch even more. More the eyeballs, the higher the TRP ratings and hence, more Ad revenue. This is a vicious circle except for owners of media.

By overly focusing more on social issues, the mainstream media want to downplay and ignore the importance of pressing issues like poverty, jobs, inflation, education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. Focusing on these issues doesn’t serve the interest of the ruling class because these issues are not important to them. Why? The ruling class has had these issues already solved through the market(money) and government(policies). We have seen them, the ruling class, many times, sending their kids abroad for quality education or themselves going to another country for excellent medical service. But, when it comes to you, they want you to stay here and pay taxes for their offshore trips. If you really want a quality education or healthcare, either they want you to get a loan or, if you can’t get any, then simply suffer. Though you know this truth deep down, they don’t want you to strongly believe in it otherwise, you will act on it. All the narratives, rhetoric, and propaganda from mainstream media are to make you believe that these pressing issues are only or mainly “personal” issues and not “social” issues. If it were not for this propaganda, we would have come together and solved these issues collectively using cooperative strategies, just like many animals, especially mammals on this planet do. By keeping these issues socially unsolved, they want you to pay for solving these issues at an exorbitant price, even if it means taking loans so that they continue to make a profit out of you.
That was about the middle/working class getting screwed over by the ruling class through propaganda in media. However, there are issues that concern the media itself like “self-censorship“. No media should not feel unsafe or actuallyget threats for covering a news story. No media should Self-censor to avoid getting any lawsuits or threats for every piece they want to publish. Many times, in investigative journalism, they have to go against powerful individuals and institutions to uncover the injustices being done. Therefore, having a safe environment is of utmost importance for journalism to thrive not only for a few powerful but also for the general public. This safe and free environment for journalism should be made sure politically, socially, economically, and culturally. No obstacles, bottlenecks, or roadblocks.

However, the opposite has happened in India over the last 2 decades. As I mention in the first paragraph, India’s place in Reporters Without Border’s World Press Freedom Index has fallen to 150th out of 180 countries, down by 8 places in 2022 alone. How many Newspapers, and TV News channels have covered this? How many debates and discussions? How much airtime? Press freedom or the “Free Press” issue is in the interest of the media themselves. Yet, they don’t want to talk much about it.

One possible reason is that the government has put out a statement discrediting the methodology behind the index. Just because the government discredited, it doesn’t mean it is necessarily false. If the mainstream media is not covering India’s Press Freedom Index, which is in the media’s interest, then one is only left to think – are the media afraid of covering it? or fear of covering something against the government that it doesn’t accept? It seems at least the media can do is cover both Press Freedom Index and also the Government’s opinion on it. Let people make their own opinion about it. Yet, the media don’t want to take any risks whatsoever.

The people that control the media get richer and richer not just in terms of their bank balance but also in power. This explains why these people who have both big business and political interests own and control media. When the three pillars of democracy – Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary are not supposed to be controlled by Private individuals but are run with public taxpayer’s money, how justified is it that the media being the fourth pillar of democracy is run by private individuals just like any other business? There is a good reason why other businesses from other sectors are not considered the fourth pillar of democracy. It is because only the media has the power to inform people. If it is the people who are being informed by the media, then shouldn’t the people have more say in the control of the media? rather than just powerful interest groups?

Hold on! I am not saying there should be only state media – media run only by the government. What I am saying is What if the public stakes in a media are increased legislatively by passing a law, a mandate that requires a significant share of the income of a media to come from Subscriptions rather than mainly Advertisements? I think if a media is run through a mostly Subscription-based business model, then people have some control over the media and can finally get the media to work for them. One issue with this approach is that media can fake subscriptions. How to avoid fake subscriptions? I don’t know. I think with the help of some technology, the solution is possible. For argument’s sake, if this works, then just like the other 3 pillars of democracy, media will start to work for people too. While the other pillars are far from being clean, at least, with a subscription-based approach, some power over media is restored to people. Maybe, this can get the media to be accountable to people. This could explain why so many independent journalists on youtube funded by supporters alone are increasingly seen as more trustworthy than mainstream media personalities.

In mainstream media, it is no surprise that by being the fourth pillar of democracy, serving people is not important anymore as long as they set narratives that serve their owners- more profit and more power. In other words, Greed has completely taken over the press. If it wants to truly serve people and hold power to account its business model would look more subscription-based rather than running Advertisements – Business or Government.