Media not doing enough

​Hyderabad: Eminent journalist Kalpana Sharma on Friday said that of late the media was complacent and not doing enough to scrutinise government policies.

Kalpana Sharma was speaking at the 12th national conference of Network of Women in Media, India on ‘Gender and the Media: Continuities and Discontinuities’ at the Press Club here on Friday.

Giving examples, she said that no one knew what was happening in Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur, where journalists were suffering.

Sharma said that everyone reacted when a one-day ban was proposed on NDTV India, but no one knew that the government had made changes in Cable TV Act by including section 6, which states that an officer of the level of superintendent of police can stop the live coverage on the pretext of national interest.

“The rules are such that suspension of the telecast can be ordered for one to 30 days and we are not even aware of that,” said Sharma. She said that similar provisions were proposed during the UPA government, but were halted following protests by scribes.

Sharma said that the corporate media had its own agenda now and aggression had become a norm. “In the broadcasting media, there is no debate; it is only shouting and actual crisis is not reported. She said that media was contributing to the creation of wobble,” said Sharma.

In 1984 children were dying because of malnutrition in a village in Maharashtra and this thing is happening even now, but no one is writing about that, she said, adding that these are the stories to write.

Other eminent women journalists, including Laxmi Murthy, Ammu Joseph, transgender activists Vaijayanti Vasanta and others also spoke.