When the watchdog becomes the lapdog, what happens to the public interest? I write about the continuing crisis in Indian News Media. This appeared in the FPJ on 18th January

Last week, Mumbai Police filed a supplementary charge sheet in the case it is making against a number of broadcasters and key personnel at the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). Amongst the channels accused is Republic TV, and its hyper judgemental anchor, Arnab Goswami. The allegations are serious – Goswami and Partho Dasgupta – the CEO of BARC – colluded to fudge ratings in favour of Republic TV. The police submitted almost 3500 pages of evidence, including transcripts of whatsapp chats between Arnab Goswami and the CEO of BARC, Partho Dasgupta.

The chats seem to suggest that there was heavy-duty collision between Goswami and Dasgupta to ensure that the Republic group of news channels not only stayed at a number one position, but also a number of underhand barriers seemed to be discussed were set up to ensure that competition fared badly. Over and above this, if this were not enough, there were conversations about ‘fixing’ bureaucrats; issues dealing with national security – before they took place – and a fair amount of bad-mouthing of their opponents – everyone else in news broadcasting. And, lastly, there was the lobbying to cover up alleged defrauding of Doordarshan to the tune of crores.

Let us look at this story in three parts. The first is the alleged fixing of ratings. A move that would allow any channel to gain the advantage of its competitors. In an overcrowded industry – by the last reckoning there are almost 900 TV channels, of which 400 are in the news and current affairs space. They all compete for the same advertising pie, and they are all measured by the same metric ratings. These ratings give a channel the edge in negotiating with advertisers. The more the ratings, the more you can charge. Therefore, any move to fix the ratings, is essentially defrauding and cheating advertisers.

At the second level, the chats reveal allegations of ‘fixing’ opponents – people who head other news broadcasters. The use of political influence to create hurdles before others who are in the same business, to ensure they do less well than the Republic.   These could be termed as unfair trade practices.

The third is knowing about highly classified military operations three days before it took place. The chat transcripts seem to suggest that Mr Goswami knew about the Balakot strike three days before it took place. One could look at the transcripts and say that the chat was mere bravado. Or one could look the transcripts and ask, if Goswami knew who else knew? And what is the implication of this knowledge on the lives of the soldiers on the frontline? 

And, lastly, there is the highly uncomplimentary descriptions of some minsters – Jaitley and Javdekar in particular – but that is not as worrying as the discussion about the ‘fixing’ of bureaucrats and technocrats– including the head of Doordarshan – who seemed to stand up for what was good for the Indian Republic, as opposed to what was good for Republic TV.

To be fair to Mr Goswami and the Republic TV group, they probably aren’t the only ones trying to do this. It is likely that every major busines interest in news TV has tried, to a greater or lesser extent, to do all those things that seem to be suggested by the WhatsApp transcripts. We heard it when the first TRP scam broke, we heard it when the second TRP scam broke; we heard it when the Neera Radia scandal took place – and we have seen it countless times in action. There is something very broken about the media, and I am not really sure it can be fixed.

 The fourth pillar of democracy has been corrupted and corroded and become power brokers, instead of looking out for the interests of the people. This is the problem of media not just in India, but across the world. When news companies use their power to subvert the process – we need to sit up and pay heed.  The nexus between politicians and the media is now so great, it is difficult to know when one group ends, and the other begins.

If the media is corrupt and corroded, and cancerous to societies it operates in– then what is the future of journalism? The answer is even more obvious than it seems. The future of journalism is individual journalists and their beats. And we the subscriber who fund the coverage of these beats. Journalism has to go back to its roots – the individual who wants to uncover what those in power are trying to hide.  And the good thing is that the internet still enables this model. We need to enable, empower, and fund individual journalists/groups of journalists and see if they can tell us the truth, without trying to manipulate, control, and herd us into things we don’t want.