The recent
slew of news coverages in the media about the Sahara Chief SubrataRoy have the perfect makings of a Bollywood script, with Roy being
portrayed as the proverbial villain. In a country which prides itself on a
stringent judicial system and ‘free media’ this prejudiced media trial of a
‘fallen icon’ as Subrata Roy is
being portrayed, is shocking and hard to digest.
The media
seems have to have forgotten a basic rule in journalism. No one is guilty or
accused unless they are proved to be so. While reams of newsprint have been
devoted to the alleged ‘illegal assets’ amassed by Subrata Roy, no one seems to have noticed that the man
single handedly created jobs for lakhs. Strangely no newspaper or media channel
has bothered to mention this. Or even the fact that he created a media empire
which created a plethora of jobs for their own journalist brethren in a time of
global economic crises.
I’m not
saying that Subrata Roy should not
be punished for his misdeeds or acts of crime. The law should prevail over
everyone as it treats all humans as equal. In the same breath, the law should
ensure that the media conducts itself fairly when it comes to this coverage
because a final verdict on Subrata Roy’s
fate is yet to be unveiled. Is anyone in the media listening?
No comments:
Post a Comment