Journalism stands maligned
today. You don’t like a story, tom tom it as fake news. You don’t like the
stakes of a story, you describe the journalist as a Bhakt or a Libtard. You
ascribe a nefarious motive to everything a newspaper or a news channel or a
news website does these days. It’s not limited to India. It’s a world-wide
phenomenon. It is the weapon every lackey and a liar uses when exposed or
fearing exposure.
There is truth in what is
said about journalism. There is no editorial; it is called content. There is
hardly any reportage; it is editorializing. There is just about a shred of
analysis; it is sychophancy at work. There is no Editor; everybody is an
editor. There are no issues; there is an agenda. There is not much of
investigative journalism; it is source-based writing. There is scant respect for
fact; there is lot of supposition. There is not sufficient news; it is
entertainment.
Journalism shares these
anomalies with today’s society. That should normally mean death for both
journalism and our institutions. But that is not the case. Journalism is still
alive. A surprisingly substantial part of journalism in India continues
to be a product of integrity, the derivative of a process based on the
principle of holding a mirror to the society. Only, one has to be erudite and
courageous enough, and sincere to boot, to recognize such journalism.
The Tribune’s story on
January 3, 2018 titled “Rs. 500, 10 minutes, and you have access to billion
Aadhaar details” is a case in point. The second to fifth paragraphs
summarise the nature of the expose:
“It took just Rs 500, paid
through Paytm, and 10 minutes in which an “agent” of the group running the
racket created a “gateway” for this correspondent and gave a login ID and
password. Lo and behold, you could enter any Aadhaar number in the portal, and
instantly get all particulars that an individual may have submitted to the
UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), including name, address,
postal code (PIN), photo, phone number and email.
“What is more, The Tribune
team paid another Rs 300, for which the agent provided “software” that could
facilitate the printing of the Aadhaar card after entering the Aadhaar number
of any individual.
“When contacted, UIDAI
officials in Chandigarh expressed shock over the full data being accessed, and
admitted it seemed to be a major national security breach. They immediately
took up the matter with the UIDAI technical consultants in Bangaluru (sic).
“Sanjay Jindal, Additional
Director-General, UIDAI Regional Centre, Chandigarh, accepting that this was a
lapse, told The Tribune: “Except the Director-General and I, no third person in
Punjab should have a login access to our official portal. Anyone else having
access is illegal, and is a major national security breach.”
The UIDAI, which has faced
innumerable complaints about problems in data collection and preservation of
privacy, took particular umbrage and filed an FIR against the reporter Rachna
Khair and a few others. The journalist was charged with impersonation, using
forged document and for good measure, cheating.
What was its ground for
filing the FIR? It says: “An input has been received through The Tribune
dated January 3, 2018, that the ‘The Tribune purchased’ a service being offered
by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details
for any of the more than 1 billion Aadhaar numbers created in India thus
far….The above-mentioned persons have unauthorisedly accessed the Aadhaar
ecosystem in connivance of the criminal conspiracy… The act of the aforesaid
involved persons is in violation of (the various sections mentioned in the
FIR)… Hence, an FIR needs to be filed at the cyber cell for the said
violation.”
A “babu” did his/her duty.
The organization is satisfied. Its ruffled feathers smoothened. Let the damn
reporter go to jail, or spend money and time appearing in courts. She deserves
it! How dare she expose the organization which is collecting the citizen’s personal
data and is wholly responsible for its secrecy? I will be surprised if a
simultaneous, hidden, internal inquiry was ordered to verify the facts in the
story.
Thanks to the social media,
and the traditional media competing with it for space, the issue “trended” – as
they describe a story’s success these days. The reaction was divided. I
sympathise with the Indians – like me, they have lost the habit of recognizing
a good story when it appears. A businessman, Mohandas Pai, tweeted in response
to journalist Shekhar Gupta’s defence of the report: “…nothing wrong in
reporting this flaw and misuse but to buy a stolen password, access data is a
criminal act, breaking the law cannot be justified by good intentions.”
The well-respected Pai, who
was part of the team which heralded India’s entry into the cyber century, also
tweeted: “Very surprised at this view. Are journalists above the law? For any
story can you break the law? Today everybody is a journalist, write a blog, a
criminal can rob a bank, write a blog and claim did it for story!”
Now, that’s the perception of
such a widely travelled and experienced professional who is regarded for his
acumen the world over. No point talking about the reaction of lesser
humans, is there?
This simply shows current India
relies largely on botched up interpretations of values and professional ethics.
The word, professional, seems obsolete. Every action, inaction, non-action is
suspect. Ethics is a burden opportunism barely wants to tolerate. Opportunism
is the fad of the day. A national tragedy.
A journalist knows there is
something wrong happening. It is the journalist’s bounden duty to expose the
wrong-doing through a well-researched story from an information platform. How
can a journalist expose a wrong without showing the wrong and how the wrong is
allowed to happen? In The Tribune case, the reporter simply told us how it is
possible to bribe and hack private data. For that, she gets called a cheat.
Wow!
And the Pais of the world are
shocked that journalists dare describe intentional breach of law as a
good intention.
By this illogic, the then
Indian government should have dumped Indian Express journalist Ashwini Sarin in
jail for “buying” Kamala. Aware of flesh trade in the tri-junction of Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and to expose the fact that it is easy to
“buy” a woman for as little as around R. 2000 as the law turns a blind eye,
Sarin “bought” the girl. The story, in February, 1981, shocked the country.
Nobody called Sarin a “cheat” or an “impersonator” then.
There were and are hundreds
of Sarins in India. Like Khaira. They live to expose a wrong. They go into
unchartered waters, with only a verbal assurance of their bosses acting as a
life line, to get you to see the dirty underbelly of this country and this
government and these institutions. The people never get to know what these
journalists go through. Many live to tell their stories, but many get hurt,
maimed, even killed in the process.
Like the whistleblowers. Like
the citizen journalists. Like the good citizens who record bad things –
molestations, rapes, murders, corruption, beatings, anything. Who do you think
inspire these people, these ordinary citizens who put their lives in danger all
across the country every day?
Sitting in an arm-chair
anyone with time to waste can keep discussing the similarities and
dissimilarities between an investigative journalist and an ethical hacker. A
routine browsing of an English dictionary will tell you they are two different
things with their own, separate, moral and ethical fibres.
After the Kamala episode, the
then Executive Editor of The Indian Express, Arun Shourie, said: "We will
ask the court if the law can be broken for a legitimate investigation and
afterwards approach the court with a request to initiate steps to mitigate the
evil laid bare by the investigation and thereby enlarge the scope of the
citizen's rights…..I can't change the society. It will change when people will
want it. I am just holding a mirror to society. I am using the Gandhian
technique: pick up small issues, remove fear, try and educate people about the
evils in society, and coax his contribution out of every
individual."
Koyee
shaq?
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