TOO MUCH FREEDOM?

The Media. Newspapers, magazines, Television, the internet. A powerful and potent weapon. A tool to lend a voice to people deprived of justice. A mighty weapon for mute and meek victims who have been subjected to attrocities and chose to bear it in silence, for fear of being hounded by the oppressors. A channel to keep the naive and ignorant informed about what is happening around the world, even behind the curtains. A boon. Thats what it was meant to be. It sure was a potent weapon when used responsibly. However, as time has progressed, the media seems to have forgotten their greatest commandment, "With power comes Great Responsibilty".

The recent case of Delhi's local news channel Live India's 'Sting Operation' showed us all that perhaps we have glorified the media a little too much and have actually created a monster.

A 'Sting Operation' conducted by Live India proclaimed that Ms .Khurana, a teacher at Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Delhi, was involved in the making of pornographic movies, and forced her students to feature in them. The channel claimed to have tapes on conversations between a porn dealer asking for supply of girls, and another tape in which Ms Khurana was said to have forced a student of hers into it. But turns out that it was all a sham. The ploice found out that there was a dispute between Ms Khurana and one of the reporter's friends, and in order to teach her a lesson they fabricated the entire episode. And so the channel made a huge hue and cry about it, and used the false evidence to put down the hapless lady. And yeah, we viewers believed them, coz a tape is a tape and counts as true evidence, nevermind that we don't know about the alleged criminal's background. And all the channels go on freely viewing their respective stories on the subject, and straightaway show the defendant as evil and a criminal, and not as an alleged criminal. The media has seemed to proclaim themselves as judges. The poor lady was mobbed and hit mercilessly, her clothes torn, abuses showered on her from all sides. And no one really cared to see if the allegations were true. Why should they? The news and the media can never go wrong, right? Very few news channels like NDTV and CNBC show mature content. Most of them only want to grab the viewers' attention and will go to any lenghts to achieve their end.

Whenever the government proposes media censorship, the media raises their voices in unison, proclaiming it as a violation of rights and an attack on truth.

But is it truth always? Who is going to control this self-righteous monster? Who is going to remind them about their duties and responsibilties, in these times of TRP races?

http://in.news.yahoo.com/070907/43/6kgto.html