What Is Sauce For The Mainstream
Media Should Be Sauce For The Social Media Too.
SANJAY PINTO
It’s worth recalling English jurist Jeremy Bentham’s observation “Where
there is no publicity, there is no justice. Publicity is the very soul of
justice. It is the keenest spur to exertion and the surest of all guards
against improbity. It keeps the judge himself while trying, under trial.”
Quoted in a few landmark judgments of the yesteryears like the Naresh Shridhar
Mirajkar case, this Bentham gem is a reminder of the old toss up between the
open justice system and privacy coupled with a fair trial. A debate rekindled
by the recent Supreme Court verdict that allows postponement of publication in
select and sensitive trials. Yet again, the mainstream media under the scanner.
The same week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raised the issue of abuse
of the social media by mischievous elements in his meeting with Directors
General Of Police. Two authorities, two separate concerns. Today, there are
defamation suits claiming damages of a hundred crore over a tweet, filed in
India. So why is regulation, which constantly haunts the mainstream media,
considered a bad word in the context of the social media? It’s all very well to
keep placing checks and balances for newspapers and television channels but
what about the possible world ‘wild’ web sections on twitter and facebook?
Public opinion is created, cemented and disseminated much faster on these
platforms. Hours before a prime time discussion on national tv could take
place or a strongly worded editorial could come out, the verdict was already
out on twitter and facebook on the biggest stories of the week. On cartoonist
Aseem. On the Koodankulam protest. Both these cases were being heard in courts.
Can it be anyone’s contention that tweets, retweets, wall posts or tags are any
less potent? That they come with diminished potential of influencing minds that
matter? I’d say there is more hard hitting and incisive commentary on this
platform. The 140 character brevity is now a fine art! Two sets of rules? At
least, there are Editors to take the rap for objectionable content in news
reports. Who will take responsibility for trolls and orchestrated vilification
campaigns on the social media? Twitter Inc which does not even have an office
in India? Anonymous folks or worse, those with fake identities who revel in
sniper shots? Please don’t misconstrue my line of argument. I’m as much a fan
and beneficiary of the social media as I am of the concept of ‘with great
power comes great responsibility’. That I have ceased to be a part of the
mainstream media from this week should establish my bonafides!
While there is anger on the social network, there is also the softer
side. Some of the most sentimental comments on Yuvraj Singh’s comeback and the
passing away of the ‘Milkman of India’ Verghese Kurien were not on tv or the
papers but on walls and through tweets. And yes, on the Amul billboards too,
that I’ve grown up admiring.
(An edited version of this column of
mine was published in The Hindu)
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