Zee JLF deliberates on credibility of media

"For an honest individual, a job in the media is a cake walk: one only has to speak the truth," feels Rohit Gandhi, Editor-in-Chief of DNA and WION, Zee Network's English news channel.

Gandhi said this at an absorbing session on the subject, "News and Views: The Truth of the Newsroom", held at the Mughal Tent venue in Diggi Palace on Sunday. With the technology available today, he added, a lie could be identified within minutes. He did clarify, however, that there was a deficit of credibility in some sections of the media.

Sudhir Chaudhary, Editor of Zee News, who was also part of the panel, which had Suhel Seth and award-winning investigative journalist Teresa Rahman, noted that the tenor of reportage, and its honesty, lay with the reporter and the editorial team of the organisation, some of whom could harbour biases.

For his part, Seth argued that while TRPs were a reality, it was not for the media to "dumb down society. We need to revisit our intellectual bandwidth," he said.

Speaking at a session later in the day, renowned journalist Madhu Trehan came down heavily on the former Congress regime as well as the Modi government for cutting off journalists' access to information. She said that in the current climate of fear when a decree, such as demonetization, is issued, the media cannot challenge or criticise it.

Another session on the century-old Sykes-Picot agreement saw an animated discussion on how imperial strategies of the last century continued to have repercussions in contemporary events, especially in the volatile Middle East. Journalist James Barr whose recent book, 'A Line in the Sand', was the peg for the discussion spoke about how it had led the Arabs to blame the West for all their problems. Robert Worth, American journalist who has covered the region for many decades, spoke about how the very same feeling had created a pan-region solidarity among a people who had been divided for long by tribal, religious and other identities.

Pakistani civil society is conspicuous by its absence in Zee JLF, pointed out Nepalese publisher, editor and writer Kanak Mani Dixit as he praised secular bloggers and free thinkers of Bangladesh and Pakistan. "Many of them have been killed and those remaining face grave risks to their lives. Compared to their predicament, my travails in Nepal are insignificant," says Dixit, who was panellist at the session titled That Which Cannot Be Said that dwelt on the many aspects of state censorship and self-censorship.

Expressing similar opinions in a session on 'The Colour of Money', Nepalese businessman and author, said, "One thing that India has failed to do is manage its southeastern neighbours," he said.

On a lighter note, Prasoon Joshi sang "Meri Maa" from the film Taare Zameen Paar, at his morning session at Zee JLF revealing that he is as good a signer as he is a poet, lyricist, adman. His soulful rendition of the song, whose lyrics he had written, came in for a round of robust applause from Sunday crowds gathered at Diggi Palace. Joshi urged youngsters to live in the present and do what they feel is right. He said that it is healthy to be confused because it will finally lead to clarity.