I fear local media could be misused during polls: Jitendra Raut
Media played vital role during the Jana Andolan II and it received praises from all corners of the society. Since then, the political parties, diplomats, human rights activists and civil society leaders have stressed the importance of the role the media should play in holding the constituent assembly elections freely, fairly and on the scheduled date. At this point of time, the media are seen shouldering the responsibility to run the election campaigns, while political parties remain engaged with other issues. There are also fears that media could be manipulated by the political forces for their gains in the polls. Jitendra Raut, producer with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Nepali Service talked with Indra Adhikari of Nepalnews on the role that media have to play and cautioned concerned authority about the possible misuse. Excerpts:
You worked with both national and foreign media. In what way they differ in terms of their coverage of happenings in Nepal? What influence do they have in national politics?
BBC Nepali Service, where I work, is basically targeted to Nepal audiences. The friends in national media here have more access to resources and have more mobility. In contrast, we work with limited manpower and access. We have only three correspondents in Kathmandu. We rely on them, though the London team directly contacts our news sources. Under such circumstances, we give priority to only the important current affairs. We do two longer stories related to Nepal in a week, so we need to choose specific subjects.
BBC has been famed for its reliability, impartiality and truthfulness, not only in Nepal but worldwide. That's why listeners believe on what BBC says. So they take our news seriously. But it doesn't mean they ignore others' news. Based on facts that I found while talking to our audiences, I think, we have more influence on listeners. Certainly, this will influence politics.
What role can national and international (like BBC) media play to help hold the constituent assembly elections successfully?
Media certainly have an important role to play. Constituent assembly election is a political agenda. The government, parties and other concerned agencies should have communicated with people in various aspects such as why is this being held, what is being done and how is this going to be held. However, you must have noticed that the media have literally taken over the responsibility of publicity of the election. There have been no talks and campaigns on this issue from the political circle. The political debates have been limited within few subjects related to peace process. The Election Commission has been repeatedly calling on the political parties to reach out to the electorate with their campaigns. But only the media have been informing people that constituent assembly election scheduled to be held on November 22.
In some cases the Maoists say the national and international media mostly report their negative aspects and that they are giving more priority to anti-Maoist news. Do you think so?
This is hard to say. If I have to quote you that Maoists say the media mostly report their negative aspects only, this is their point of view. The audience draws meaning of the news published according to his or her outlook. We journalists don't make any judgment rather present the facts in their natural originality. It is the readers or listeners who make judgment based on the facts presented. This is the general formula of presenting news.
The Maoists must have drawn that conclusion according to their own perspective. If not, there are many reports about their good deeds as well. However, we cannot claim that journalism practiced in our country is balanced. We seek angle in news and the news media have their own angle of presenting specific events. There are newspapers, which are aligned to Maoists, UML or Nepali Congress. TVs and radios are yet to be categorized as to which party they are aligned to. Taking into consideration the news items disseminated by the media in general, some reports might have been unfavourable for the Maoists. I think this is the difference in how a news item is interpreted.
Do you think the trend in media at this period of time are positive towards the constituent assembly polls?
There are no negative reports. Whatever is being published or broadcast, they always favour the polls. To talk about the role that media can play, it is limited. We can only publicise the events and present specific ideology and thoughts to the people. This is the basic ethics of journalism. We will observe the practice of 'mission journalism’, to quote the term our seniors use, with the approach of the polls.
Practically, newspapers, radios or televisions would publicise the ideology they believe in. The listeners or the readers are not fools. So the journalists should not conceit themselves that whatever they write, broadcast or televise is accepted by the consumers in the same form. We should not disillusion ourselves that we are the best analysts of news events.
Don't you think the small media outlets, especially outside the capital, could be misused by political parties as campaigning tools during the polls? If so, who is responsible to control this?
You have raised not only the important question but urgent. The licensing for the establishment of FM radio has gone uncontrolled. The criteria for licensing do not speak about the political alienation of such FM owners. I concluded from interactions with my friends here that FM operation licenses have been given to those persons or organizations who have direct affiliation with certain political thoughts. When we talk of the FM radio, it is yet to distinguish which station is close to which political group, like we see in print media. Maoists have their few FM stations, but their influence is nominal. However, the rumours have begun to categorise the FM radios to specific political thoughts.
Since the political parties have not begun their election campaign, people are yet to feel the alienation of the FM radios. And I fear that this will happen. It is the government, the Election Commission and the observers who take steps to control such trends during the polls. I am not aware if the code of conduct prepared by the Election Commission addresses this concern. The watchdogs must take this matter into account. World experiences have taught us that when people of one thought have control over the media, the results are very bad. nepalnews.com Aug 28 07
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