I’m not the sermonisng type
Really, I am not much for sermons on what is good and what is not (considering I don’t have a moral code of conduct), but what Times of India did to Pradyuman Maheshwari stinks. Big time.
On the one hand you have the newspaper crying foul everytime somebody brings up the topic of curtailing FDI in Print and stuff like that, tom-tomming Freedom of Expression and Media rights and shit like that, and on the other, they go about smothering a blog. And for what? For possibly tongue in cheek commentary.
I have read Mediaah (religiously in fact) and loved every one of his posts. I have also read the 19 posts in question, and frankly, beyond telling me that TOI is pretty active in the Media world (favourable or otherwise), I don’t see anything offending. Far less, do I see anything that is a “greivous blow” to the group. If I, a person who works in a field related to media, fail to see anything offending, I don’t understand how “any layman” by only “merely looking” at the website, can be influenced by Mediaah! against TOI.
(All those words within quotes are the terms used by the big lawyers in drafting the legal notice served on PM)
Right from class 6, we are brought up to respect the Indian constitution, we learn of our fundamental rights and duties as citizens. We learn of our right to freedom of speech. We grow up to respect the media (as much as it is possible to respect it) for the kind of work they do. Most of us have secret desires to be a journalist and crack the latest case of corruption or write about how our Jawans protect our borders.
Some of us get to live our dreams and become reporters and journalists. The others decide to express their freedom, their opinion in multiple ways. If a major media player like TOI can’t understand our basic tendency to express our opinions, how on earth are they qualified to run a newspaper that claims to be the largest selling english daily in the world?
Now, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech are the basic tenets on which the web is built. As far as the net’s concerned, anything goes. A blog is the ultimate tool/end in terms of self-expression. How can a group that claims to believe in freedom of expression not respect something as simple as commentary on blogs?
What if Pradyuman had written the same posts as a proper article on the newspaper he works for? Will TOI sue the newspaper that runs that article? Imagine, one group of publication suing another group for something as simple as commentary.
What I see is that TOI is going to such great lengths only because, blogging, as a phenomenon, is still not big enough, nor recognized enough. And TOI thinks it can get away by smothering us bloggers down. And the only solution to this would be to ensure that we, as bloggers, raise our (for this once) collective voices and show the main stream media that we are truly forces to reckon with.
Dina talked of tipping point sometime back. Well, that tipping point is no where near enough if we folks are silenced for what we choose to write.
The answer to me is clear enough – If we are to be respected, and to stop further such incidents occurring, it’s time we folks began taking ourselves seriously.
- Links
- Archived copies of the 19 posts made by Pradyuman Maheshwari: http://mediaha.blogspot.com/
- Copy of the legal notice served on Pradyuman Maheshwari: http://www.flickr.com/photos/92542819@N00/
- List of Fundamental rights and duties: Rights, Duties
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