27th July 1997

A vibrant press

"Who paid for Gowda’s family on jaunts abroad?" "Minister involved in scam", "Prime Minister inept".

These were a couple of headlines seen in Indian newspapers over the past few months. At the time the query about Gowda’s family hit the headlines, Gowda was none other than Deva Gowda, Prime Minister of India.

Indian newspapers are fearless-sometimes they accuse, convict and even lynch politicians before the courts actually do it.

The media does not spare anyone.. the current focus being on some Indian cricketers being accused of match fixing or taking bribes to lose a test or one-day match to help widespread gambling on games.

The row has spread across all pages in the Indian press which is reporting allegations and counter allegations.

Earlier this week, India’s widely-read Outlook magazine... which ran the piece in which former test player Manoj Prabhakar accused an unnamed colleague of approaching him once to "fix" a match -published an interview with former Pakistan wicketkeeper Rashid Latif where he alleged (note: the word alleged was not used in article) that Indian cricketers, former captain Mohamed Azharuddhin, Navjot Siddhu, Ajay Jadeja and Venkat Raju were involved in this kind of activity.

Azharuddhin, in Colombo for the Asia Cup tournament, and others named promptly denied the charge. Azharuddhin showed reporters a fax from Latif saying he never made the allegation.

There are hundreds and hundreds of newspapers in this country. Some regional, others national. In Bombay alone you get The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Asian Age, The Mid-Day, The Afternoon, The Daily, The Observer, The Economic Times and the Financial Express, to name but a few.

Then each state has its vernacular papers and magazines are a dime a dozen. The cost of a daily newspaper in Bombay is just two rupees (approximately three Sri Lankan rupees).

On an average day a newspaper would have around 32 pages or more and as any festival such as Diwali (Deepavali) draws near the number would shoot up to 64 pages or even cross the 100-mark. And the advertising is stupendous.

There are few similarities, when one compares the newspapers here and in Sri Lanka. The Times of India is the staid old lady of Indian media, like Colombo’s Daily News, with its old English and rigid style. The dynamic Indian Express can be compared to Colombo’s Sunday Times with interesting titbits and clean layout. The Asian Age with its numerous pages and lengthy articles is similar to the Island - lots of news, very little ads.

And Mid-Day, a mid-morning/afternoon tabloid reminds me so much of the Sun which was sadly shut down in 1990.

Most of the newspapers, at least in Bombay, seem to pay scant regard to the basic rules of journalism that we learnt long ago. The English newspapers publish reports and items literally interspersed with Hindi phrases or words, and in most cases they do not bother to carry the translation in English within brackets.

Even the Oxford Dictionary has many Hindi words and there are indications that it is considering a special Indian English edition.

The other most blatant violation is that sometimes newspapers carry the names of rape victims. The victims could be from remote villages, but the rule that the identity of the victim should be kept a secret is sacred among journalists.... at least the way we were taught.

But on the whole, the newspapers dish out excellent stuff, criticism of the government and its machinery, interesting arts and culture pieces and indepth investigative stories.

This without journalists having to fear being abducted and killed by unidentified men in ‘military’ uniforms or being hauled before the courts for publishing an item unpalatable to important politicians.

Of course, once in a while, newspaper offices are attacked by ‘activists’ (actually goons) of one political party or another. It’s not a regular occurence, however.

The vibrancy of any democracy can be measured by the freedom enjoyed by its media. India is no exception. The media is not muzzled here, like in most South Asian countries. And if I had to rate this democracy I would give it five stars.

Continue to Plus page 8 - The trouble is ambitious parents-Kumarasinghe

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