Media was once honest and unbiased, advocating for the injustices that oppressed individuals in society however, this is not true anymore. Recently, India has been caught up in controversy due to the ongoing battle between the number one media channel in India and the Mumbai police. Sparked by the suicide of the famous Bollywood actor, Sushant Singh Rajput (SSR), this issue has raised questions regarding the legitimacy of state security and law.
With Republic TV finding links between the SSR suicide case and individuals in the higher social spectrum, the politicians of Maharashtra panicked. The rumour that the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s son was involved in the suicide case of SSR’s talent manager Disha Salian raised questions as to whether the Maharashtra government was plotting a cover-up. With other stakeholders of this case taking advantage of media coverage to badmouth Republic TV, citizens of India were shocked to see the lengths to which political higher-ups were willing to go in order to shut-down all the possibilities of both suicide cases being a murder. A media channel that used to advocate for honesty and justice was targeted by political parties and state police.
The media’s purpose isn’t to provide politicised information to viewers. Furthermore, targeting media houses for releasing evidence-based news is absolutely unethical. Currently, the Mumbai Police Commissioner, Param Bir Singh, is fighting to justify his claim that Republic TV has been inflating their Television Rating Points although, the denial of this disclosure from Republic TV through two sting operations has raised more concerns.
Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami and Output Editor Sagrika Mitra outside the Mumbai Police Station.
Now that the Maharashtra government is suppressing media rights from journalists and higher members of the Republic channel, this calls into question the real truth behind all the rigged and fraudulent lies. Moreover, this raises the question of whether the interference of politics in the media is ethical.
My perspective on this issue is based on the argument that media and politics cannot merge. Politicising the media simply diminishes the truth behind the screens. Furthermore, the bias already associated with the communication of the news makes the emergence of media rights in politics even more dangerous. One fact we can all agree on is that the Maharashtra government has secrets that they don’t want to share, however, if these secrets break state law and are of potential harm to any citizen, then how can we call India a democracy?
Any democracy is built on the foundation of truth and unity between all citizens but if political stakeholders decide to unethically exercise their power on moral individuals, they break the moral codes of conduct the law establishes for any citizen. If there are individuals who recognise the need for honesty, morality, and obedience in society, then we need to support and advocate for these stories to be heard. In the state the world is in right now, there is a dire need for ethics in political systems so let’s continue to advocate and share stories from the proponents of truth and justice.
I will be updating this article based on current news in a timeline format below so look out for that!
External Resources
Read more about the Sushant Singh Rajput case here.
Read more about the Disha Salian case here.
Learn more about the current political fury in India here.
Read more about the reason why we can’t agree on what is true anymore here.
Read more about Media Ethics here.
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