– Madhumeeta Sinha and MA Moid
This article is about the response of the Telugu press in the coverage of Muslim issues in general and issues related to terrorism in particular. In the Hyderabad context what has come to our notice is that the Telugu press has begun to agree largely with police versions of stories, labeling young people as terrorists in their reports with much enthusiasm. The recent encounter at Alair, April 7th 2015, in which five under trial Muslim convicts were killed, shocked and surprised many of us with its sheer bias. All the Telugu newspapers and TV channels were unanimous in justifying the action of police and were sure that all the under trials were dreaded terrorists and rightfully deserved this treatment. This attitude of Telugu press and media towards Muslims shows the deep rooted mistrust on the one hand, and on the other the knee jerk reaction of easily branding Muslim youth as terrorists without even a trial. Most of the time the Telugu press is unconcerned and non committal, and maintains a selective silence, but in others, as with Alair, where the gruesomeness of the killing makes it too visible, rather than attempt any investigative journalism it tends to go completely with the police perspective.
Let’s take few headlines about the Alair ‘encounter’ from the Telugu newspapers and TV reports and the last two from the Urdu press:
a) Khel Khatam ( 8th April 2015, Eenadu, district main page)
b) Terrorist adda – Nalgonda (9th April, Eenadu, district main page)
c) Our snake den of sin (17 August, 2008, Eenadu)
d) Warangal encounter- Terrorist Viqaruddin shot dead while escaping – TV channel V6
e) ISI agent Viqaruddin and 4 SIMI activists Encountered at Warangal – TV ABN News
f) Encounter of Viqar and four friends by police ( 8th April 2015,Munsif, Urdu daily)
g) Five muslim under-trials killed in an encounter in Nalgonda ( 8th April 2015, Itemad , Urdu daily)
The questions that this situation raises are many: why is there so much unanimity in the Telugu press and media against Muslims? What do they intend to achieve through this? Was the Telugu press anti Muslim from the beginning? How does it cover the communal riots and the problems of the old city and the Muslims? Who are responsible for these decisions in the press and media? Are they aware of the repercussions of such reports towards the society in general and the creation of divisions and hatred in the minds of Telugu readers in particular? What do management think of these problems? What is the background of Telugu journalists? Who makes decision in choosing and presenting news and what does the government think about these?
These are the questions which bothered us and to get some background we decided to talk to a prominent journalist, M.A. Majid, from the Urdu press of Hyderabad and a member of Indian Journalist Union. We felt that being an insider to the Urdu press and the journalist community he would enable to get a broader view about this situation.
The event of 9/11 has played an important role in spreading the image of Muslims as terrorists all over the world. But long before the incident Edward Said, while writing about the global media’s hateful response to the Islam, said in his famous book Covering Islam: “yet there is a consensus on Islam as a kind of scapegoat for everything we do not happen to like about the world’s new political, social, and economic patterns. For the right, Islam represents barbarism; for the left, medieval theocracy; for the centre, a kind of distasteful exoticism.” This opinion reflects in the journalistic domain as well where religious polarization shows itself up most bitterly against the Muslims. The Telugu press and media has also picked up these tendencies under the influence of international events and popularized the word “terrorist” among Telugu readers according to Majid. The Telugu press has little understanding of Hyderabad’s Muslim ethos. But their opinions matter as they have a far greater reach in the state. Their wide readership and coverage naturally influences a wide section of the Telugu speakers.
According to Majid the Telugu press entered in to a new phase when NTR formed the government in 1984 and with that an influx of Telugu speakers and entrepreneurs to Hyderabad city took place. The population of Telugu speakers in the city has been rising to great proportions and more and more news papers and TV channels are established. Almost all the media houses are owned by the Andhra capitalists who employ journalists and editors belonging to their own region. These people have no sense of Muslims and of the Telangana region as well. In Majid’s view the TRP and circulation needs also force newspapers to present Muslims in a negative light. Stories of Muslim terrorists increase their circulation and TRP where as the Hindu terrorists in the Mecca Masjid blast case doesn’t and thus completely ignored.
Talking more about Telugu press and media, Majid pointed out that first of all the only people who come to journalism are those not absorbed in other professions. They have no commitment to the journalistic norms and methods and no sense of social issues. They are easily controlled by the media management which runs the organization like a corporate firm and has sympathies towards right wing politics. Also in many editorial teams the biases some key members seem to harbor reflect in the anti Muslim reporting. When Majid questioned a couple of these senior journalists they expressed their helplessness in changing the trend in their respective papers. They always shifted the blame on some key person in management saying that these persons are responsible in the selection and rejection of particular news items. In relation to the coverage of Alair encounter case they said that the Telugu press and media published and presented the version that was supplied to them by the police. The absence of any individual investigation of the case and full acceptance of the police story shows their apathy, if not bias, towards the Muslim population.
These may be lame excuses to justify their biases but Majid was of the view that leftist tendencies were quite strong in the press earlier but now shift towards the right has taken place and now more and more papers are showing right-wing tendencies. According to him this is a great loss to journalism and to the common people as it affects the perception of day to day realities. When asked if the Press Council could play a role, he was of the view that it has neither the teeth nor the claws to intervene in this matter. He was also skeptical of government’s role and said that government does not want to play any role, it just want to be a spectator and waits to utilize the outcome for its benefit.
A perceptive report “Terror Accused Muslims: How Fair are the Trials By Media?” by Hyderabad Forum for Justice (No date and author mentioned) echoes many of Majid’s views:
“The influential local English and Telugu media however has not paid much attention to these aspects in their reporting about ‘terrorism’. Routinely publish police reports may assuage the feelings of the general public by assuring them that police are doing something, but the media has the obligation to create a public opinion or a perspective around these issues. It is important that biases in reporting also be addressed. For instance, the fact that a large number of Muslims died in blasts does not find sufficient mention whereas Muslims and terrorists are spoken of in the same breath. Almost always we find police or intelligence agencies versions reproduced in the news papers without even slight journalistic distance. Terms like ‘jihadi’, ‘jihadi literature’ are used without slightest comprehension of what is involved. Obnoxious and offensive terms such as ‘Islamic terrorist’ or ‘jehadi terrorist’ are being routinely used. Mosques and madrasas are being referred to as ‘dens of terror’ without slightest hesitation. The arrests of the young men are splashed across in sensational headlines. The arrested men are described ISI agent, Lashkar-e-Taiba, SIMI, Indian Mujahideen, depending on the current fashion. Their photos are splashed across repeatedly in the regular and special reports, without the slightest concerns that status is that of the ‘accused’, till proven guilty by the court. But when the courts or police say that no evidence has been found such news does not merit any attention. Acquittals by courts are not even mentioned. Similarly, fact finding reports by civil liberties organizations do not find any mention.”
According to Majid these are nothing but larger tendencies of society that have crept into the media and press. This situation has put the press in a dilemma whether to follow society or enlighten and lead it; whether it should follow the crowd or educate it. Majid and many others seem to agree with the view that the regional press in India is not rising to the occasion, in other words it has become one of the biggest causes for spreading misunderstanding and enmity among people. It is also felt that the profit motive of the press and media owners will continue these dilemmas and in the process harm many innocent people and the interests of our collective lives.
MA Majid is a Journalist who lives in Hyderabad
Madhumeenta Sinha teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University
madhumeetasinha@gmail.com
MA Moid is a fellow at Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies
moidma@gmail.com