The Politics of Attacks on the Media

The hoodlums who recently attacked the IBN-Lokmat office were delivering two desperate messages to the media in general and Nikhil Wagle in particular. One, play “fair” between the Shiv Sena ( SS ) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ( MNS )and Two, the Shiv Sena has not yet lost its capacity to do “raada”( make trouble).
Of late, the media has been full of reports and analyses of the decline of the Shiv Sena and the rise of the MNS. The defeat in the assembly elections, especially the losses in the so-called Central Mumbai bastions of the SS ,cast a sullen silence over Matoshree. Heart-burn was high in the cabal that runs the SS. The assault on IBN-Lokmat was a ludicrous attempt to get back to “winning ways”, silence critics and enthuse the dwindling lumpen base.
If Raj Thackeray’s myrmidons can attack a duly elected MLA in Vidhan Bhavan, Uddhav Thackeray’s goons can run riot in your neighbourhood media office ! What better illustration of competitive hooliganism can we get? In fact , Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena MP and Executive Editor of Saamna let the cat out of the bag by his reaction to the attack : “ I am proud If the attack has been carried out by Shiv Sainiks”. QED
Attacks on the media are not new. Most political parties or their front organisations have targeted the media as easy meat at some time or the other. In fact, before the IBN-Lokmat incident, the storm-troopers of an outfit allied to the NCP had attacked the house of Lokmat editor, Kumar Ketkar, for daring to question the sagacity of installing a Shivaji statue in the Arabian Sea. Today, the NCP home minister, R R Patil sheds copious crocodile tears on the IBN-Lokmat incident.
Disturbingly, the response to these attacks has become almost perfunctory over the years. The reasons for this are not far to seek.
First, the forces that can really take on the mobs are on the decline. Trade unions, dalit organisations, womens’ organisations, civil liberties organisations, student and youth organisations and organisations of artists and intellectuals have got marginalised and fragmented. We cannot go into the reasons and causes of this historical decline here, but the fact is that these organisations have lost the ability to mobilise the masses on important political issues of the day.
Second, there is intense rivalry and competition among the media players themselves and this over-rides their sense of unity and solidarity. Thus there is only lip-sympathy when a particular media house is under attack either from the government or motivated mobs.
Third, the widespread introduction of the contract system of employment and the total capitulation to commercial interests has alienated the rank and file media person from what they perceive as the interests of the management. An organised, decisive and consistent response by all sections of the media to such attacks on their fraternity is absent today. While an exposure of the structural limitations of an advertisement-based revenue model for the media is all to the good, the generation of cynicism is worrisome.
Fourth, the relationship with the reader/viewer has been swiftly commoditised. There is very little reader/viewer identification with any particular TV channel or publication. Ironically, the attack on IBN-Lokmat will also be seen as something to be consumed and forgotten the next day. Such are the wages of excessive commodification. In fact, it has been argued that the repeated telecasts of such attacks only boosts the ratings of the political parties involved!
Lastly, the attacks on the media should not be seen in isolation. Artists, film-makers, civil liberties activists -- all forms of dissent ---are under overt or covert siege. Obviously such anti-democratic trends are being generated at the socio-economic level. The tragedy is that we are not able to rouse the people to these dangers .