We are free, the Boss says so

Sugato Hazra Former editor, Kolkata TV, and communications expert
The Pioneer, 19 October

How vibrant is the media in West Bengal? An insider reveals how the media functioned in West Bengal till Nandigram, followed by the Rizwanur episode, blew the bottom out of a system of manipulated objectivity

In Communist West Bengal, the CPI(M) relies on a media brand called 'Buddha'. The task of the Chief Minister is to sell a dream to the people, while the party organisation takes care of the nitty-gritty of converting that into votes. The Left rulers in West Bengal operate within the set parameters of India's vibrant democracy. To influence the public there is a strong presence of the party mouthpiece, Ganashakti.

Party members and supporters are supposed to read and to trust Ganashakti. For those having more faith in the electronic media there is a 24-hour news channel where only disciplined minds can work. The channel delivers the right (or 'left'?) news for the modern generation. Organising the finance for newspaper and the channel is not a problem since the poorest of the poor of Bengal are ever so willing to contribute their last paisa in ensuring the viability of Ganashakti and its clones. Moreover, it's not polite to ask such questions.

But the party media can only reach the faithful. They cannot guarantee that the so-called, free media will not corrupt the minds and spirits of the reactionaries. Mahatma Gandhi believed that if a newspaper were to run into difficulties as a consequence of publishing truth, it should rather close down than buckle.

The Mahatma did not have that much faith in the rules of the market economy. In the media business, no promoter would like to close down just for the sake of an abstraction. In any case, truth, as depicted by the Japanese filmmaker Akhiro Kurosawa in his 1951 film, Roshomon, has many sides to it.

To survive, the non-attached Bengali press presents 'truth' in different shades so as to ensure their own continuity. Those with limited circulation and reach, as well as those who are too big to manage their affairs without a little help from Government, fall in line with the dominant political force. They end up parroting a line that is too often miraculously similar to that of Ganashakti.

But there are still those who fall in neither of the two above-mentioned brackets. They are neither small, nor big. So, to survive, they must perform a kind of jugglery with the 'truth' that is perhaps unknown elsewhere. They must appear to be unbiased, yet within acceptable limits so that West Bengal's gains from having an uncrowded democracy are not frittered away.

This, of course, is predictable, since belligerence proves too costly in West Bengal. The largest-circulated Bengali daily of the State, which was once a fierce upholder of the 'truth', had to bite the dust because the ruling party organised a strike which proved too crippling. Printing a paper is only part of the business, distributing it is another. In a single-party democracy, distribution of media products that challenge the dominant forces is dangerous business. 'Dissenting' voices may turn physical as well. Thus, in West Bengal, hostile TV news channels are often taken off the air by cable distributors who, wily nilly, interrupt news channels showing events that the public can do without. In a democracy everybody has a right to disagree including cable operators. If, in the process, viewers fail to watch certain events they ought not to, then the democratic system is that much enriched.

Thus, it is deemed that Nandigram-like violence or police overkill in Singur, incidents that are too 'complicated' for the not-so-erudite viewers and may mislead public opinion, ought to be contained. This is a smarter way of ensuring public good than doing a Nehru with the Constitution. The first Prime Minister had effected the first Amendment of the Constitution, by which freedom of speech and expression was guaranteed under article 19(1)(a). Conservative critics of free speech, who still blame Nehru when they see media excesses like bogus sting operations or intrusions into celebrities' private spaces, would do well to recognise the last-mile censorship carried out by the cable operators of West Bengal.

There is a third instrument of taming the media. This emerges from out of the compulsion of the market economy and single-party democracy. Under the unique system largely developed in Kolkata the opposing voices operate within a Lakshman rekha. For example, if some steps are condemnable, like, say, violence over land acquisition, the independent media will condemn it but with certain qualifiers so as not to mislead the public. Rule one, 'Brand Buddha', a symbol of growth and development, should not be tarnished. Mortals of lower rank to Chief Minister must be passed the blame. Second, the compulsions that drove the undoubtedly democratic Government to take the apparently undemocratic action must receive equal prominence.

For instance when lives were lost in Nandigram, a leading Bengali channel kept on showing how the torching of a police jeep acted as the Godhra incident. This is known as balancing act. Those who fail to do so are checked by the ever-vigilant cable operators, who, after all, have a public responsibility to carry out.

And, finally, there is the good old leak. Independent. but not very uncooperative, media houses are occasionally recipients of scraps of profound knowledge that go a long way in managing the public disgust in certain unpalatable situations.