Venue: Fireflies Intercultural Centre, Bangalore

Forests have a great impact on climate change. Land use changes affect the carbon cycle and this in turn causes climate change. Climate change impacts the growth and productivity of forests and affects the ecological services forests provide.

The current preoccupation in international policy discourses is on mitigation. Policy discourse often forgets that communities inhabit these eco-systems. This adds to the already existing pressures of displacement, land alienation, migration, and increasingly reduced community rights to land, water, and forest produce.

There is very little official discourse on how these communities need to adapt to the changing climate. Often treated as part of the problem, these communities are, in fact, part of the solution. But not enough attention is given to this dimension. Our understanding of the regional and micro impacts is inadequate. Whatever information is available on this is not accessible to the affected communities, not even to the civil society organisations involved with them.

It is in this context that we organise this workshop with the following objectives.

• Understand the impact of climate change on the livelihood, culture and identity of forest-based communities.
• Assess risks and indications of vulnerabilities
• Understand the capabilities of these communities to deal with the changing weather patterns and consequent effects on the local flora and fauna.
• Strategize methods to make accessible regional and micro climate change impacts data and information on the traditional and scientific adaptation practices to the affected communities and civil society organisations.
• Develop strategies to initiate policy level debates and negotiations on climate change adaptation at the local level.

The workshop is  organised by Pipal Tree, Bangalore.  The participants of this workshop will be from the affected communities, civil society organisations and the media.

The workshop will begin on 29^th September at 9:00 am and will end on 30^th September at 4:30 pm.

For more information, contact:

Pipal Tree
Fireflies Intercultural Centre
Dinnepalya, Kaggalipura P.O.
Bangalore – 82 India

Email: pipaltree.prog@gmail.com

Pipal Tree through its print-media programme, The Transforming Word, is inviting Kannada journalists (working or freelancers) to write on the following aspects of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS):

1. Food security and Nregs:

The focus on regenerating the water bodies, improving the lakes and ponds, creation of check dams and repair of canals will directly help the farmers in improving their agricultural production. The development of the small holdings of dalits, tribals and other marginal farmers will add to increased food production among the poorest sections of the rural population.

2. Impact on livelihood:

By providing employment opportunities during the lean summer season the Nregs has offered a lifeline to the rural poor. The provision for developing the agricultural lands of dalit, tribal and other marginal farmers has provided a tool to these poor sections to improve their livelihood status. On the one hand, they can improve productivity in their own small holdings, on the other, they can earn extra income in their own locality, thereby minimising the need to migrate. Since women get equal wages there is more income in the household.

Moreover, the emphasis on improving the water bodies in the villages increases water security, without which life in many rural areas becomes insufferable.

3. Climate change and Nregs

Nregs aims at regenerating the environment through creation of productive assets such as water tanks, ponds, bunds, check dams and through aforestation programmes.

So far the relationship of Nregs to climate change has not been sufficiently underscored, but it is clear that the aforestation (which also serves as a carbon sink) and water conservation efforts of Nregs will have a significant effect on food, water and livelihood security.

The media can highlight the contribution of Nregs to the development of mitigation and adaptation strategies in the context of climate change. This is an important aspect that has been left out of government policy.

4. Stumbling blocks

The disconnect between the locally elected PRIs and the fractured bureaucracies (forest department, agriculture and irrigation departments.etc) has excluded the possibility of holistic planning at the village level, resulting in most schemes failing. Government bodies also see Nregs as a mere wage-employment programme, ignoring the participatory planning processes.

Local government is apathetic towards the scheme and often takes advantage of the ignorance of people to ignore implementation. In addition, corrupt local officials siphon off a part of the wages meant for the poor beneficiaries and even falsify muster roles with illegitimate or fictitious names.

Only the effective involvement of people’s organizations can overcome some of these shortcomings.

5. Success stories of Nregs

Success stories warm the heart and fill the mind with hope in a context where government initiated poverty alleviation programmes are viewed with cynicism.

The success stories being reported can include the participation of women, dalits and tribals in the planning and implementation of the scheme. In addition, it can also show how the effective implementation of the scheme has led to the socio-economic and political empowerment of the villagers.

Application Procedure:

If you are interested in writing on any of the above topics please send your bio-data and an article written by you in Kannada on any social or environmental issues to pipaltree.prog@gmail.com by 15 September 2010. The selected people will be notified by the end of September, and they will be requested to write an article on the proposed theme (3000 words) and to publish a shorter version of the article in any newspaper or magazine by the end of November. Pipal Tree will commission these articles.

This workshop was part of Pipal Tree’s efforts in developing a platform for journalists to interact with grassroot workers and activists. The central objective of this workshop was to establish media as a key element in information sourcing, support and intervention and to develop an effective media advocacy for the proper implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

NREGA has the potential to redefine the socio-economic and political situation of the rural villages by way of empowering women, adivasis and other marginalised sections of society, improving local governance, generating productive assets in the villages, preventing migration, etc. Unfortunately these potentials are not realised by the State or the people in many parts of the country.

A total of 15 journalists and 23 grassroot workers and activists from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu participated in this two-day workshop held at Fireflies Intercultural Centre, Bangalore. The workshop involved critical appraisals of implementation of NREGA through presentation of case studies from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu and reflections on the role of media in supporting the movements for social and environmental justice.

The relevance of this workshop: The official figure of poverty says that 250 million people in this country are earning less than 12 rupees a day. This is of course contested by other researchers and one very significant research group says that the number probably is as high as 500 million. We all know how far 12 rupees can get us in these days of inflation and price rise. Just the thought of 500 million people are probably earning less than 12 rupees a day is a shattering thought for anybody who is sensitive. All we hear of is the other India which is the second fastest growing economy in the world after China. But a large number of people are struggling to keep their heads above water. Media has an important role to play since they create public opinion. We have to think about the possibility of creating a new media movement in the context of the serious problems we are facing today in the country.

Being a journalist today is not an easy proposition. Infotainment became the major driving force of the media. Every newspaper has different ideological clicks. There are a lot of contradictions in working in the media. And yet all is not lost. There is still some space available in the media. Whenever there is somebody who is determined to communicate s/he is able to communicate. So the challenge is despite the contradictions how we can do something which is still meaningful. Perhaps we can look at the idea of media becoming the kind of a new practical intellectual movement for issues of social justice and of environment.

The other contradiction we found as far as Pipal Tree’s work is concerned is that the relationship between the media and the world of social activists who are working on Dalit issues, tribal issues, environmental issues or fisher-folk struggles is not as strong as it should be. Not that the media has to believe everything that the social activist is saying. Nevertheless this relationship can be useful for both the media and the social activists.

The reason why the focus of this workshop was on NREGA is, here is a programme which has revolutionary potential in the sense that the state itself has legitimised it saying for 100 days of a year each rural family will get employment. If it is true that 500 million people are earning less than 12 rupees a day then this 100 days of employment is truly revolutionary. It can mean a life and death situation for lot of people particularly in the dry season. Yet, given the lethargy of the state bureaucracy and the political class a programme like this can just degenerate into something which has been legislated but full of corruption and apathy and nothing happens. NREGA can be a mindless Act where the panchayath can use the workers for digging a pit, or making a road, if we do not look at the planning process. Local planning is hence necessary to take up work which is meaningful and productive. Here is a possibility for both the media and civil society organisations to see whether this Act can give fresh life to our rural areas.

Understanding of issues for a journalist is very important. But where is the time for journalists to do the reading and the researching, to connect with the real issues in the country. So perhaps we should look at the possibilities of building solidarities with social activists and with intellectuals in the field.

Why we are emphasising the vernacular media is its closeness to the people. Barring an occasional article, by and large the English media is not living up to what it should be doing. Not that the vernacular media is. But perhaps the potential is there and if the journalists in the vernacular media become motivated, become more connected to real issues in a way we can create a new visionary media. Maybe the spaces still exist if we are able to strategise and intelligently use it.

The potentials of NREGS: The structure that we promote in India is not favourable to the poor. The majority of people in the country depend on the environment for their livelihood. When the environment degenerates they are forced to migrate to city in search of employment. They live in the slums and do odd jobs. The growing middle class and the upper middle class rule the world. They do not worry about the growing inequalities and impoverisation of rural and urban poor.

The NREGS has come in this background. The potential for revolution is there in NREGS. But the way it is implemented in most part of India is not satisfactory.

The Act clearly mentions that the goals of NREGS are alleviation of poverty, creation of rural productive permanent assets, supplementary employment when agricultural season gets over and ensuring food security. But the State is trying hard to make sure that these potentials are not realised by the people. Here is the role of media to proactively involve in changing the situation.

The following are the major potentials of NREGS:

1. Cash flows to rural areas
2. Potential to form a union: Unless you organise and struggle you will not get your rights. Many groups failed miserably trying to organise agricultural workers into unions. There were many reasons; the main reason is the agricultural labourers do not work under one employer. In Nrega the State is the employer. This gives an opportunity to organise the agricultural workers to demand for their rights as labourers.
3. Women getting equal wage: Both men and women were avert to the idea of getting equal wages for same work. This social situation is changing with Nrega though with much reluctance.
4. General wages rising: Wherever the activists have organised people to demand for Nrega work one could see an increase of 10 to 15 rupees in the general wages.
5. Solidarity between labourers and marginal farmers: Here since the State is the employer and the marginal farmers have to continue work after the agriculture season is over there is a friendship emerging between the agricultural labourers and marginal farmers.
6. Social security. If you work for 50 days under Nrega you are entitled for health insurance and life insurance. Unfortunately, the workers are not aware of this provision and the state does not want them to know.
7. Rights based approach: On contrary to the earlier government schemes, Nrega is demand driven. In a right based approach you have to assert your rights. If 10 people as a group demand work, on 16^th day they have to be provided employment and if not the state has to give them unemployment allowance. For the first time the state commits itself to the rights based approach.
8. Permanent productive rural assets: The Act clearly says that only those kinds of works to be undertaken which creates rural productive assets. If you build a tank that means you can irrigate your field, plant trees, do fishing and so on. So over a period of time it helps to eradicate poverty. So the emphasis is given to activities like creation of new tanks and ponds, de-silting of lakes, tanks, watershed development, development of SC/ST farm lands, afforestation, making land productive, planting of fruit trees and medicinal plants, etc

   It is the journalists’ responsibility to do investigative journalism and bring to the fore the reality in the field against the visions.

9. Participation in decision making: Nrega gives us an opportunity to participate in the decision making process and to exercise our democratic rights. The potential of Nrega to make the local self governance transparent and accountable is enormous.
10. Environmental regeneration: If planned well, Nrega can contribute to the regeneration of the natural resources.

This Act is a tool to change the unjust social structure. The Hukeri gramapanchayath in Belgaum, where women from Nayaka tribal community made the panchayaths to operate in a transparent way, is an example of the change NREGA has brought in the system.

But it is unfortunate that no newspaper writes on these things. The media has an important role in informing the civil society not only what is happening but also what should be happening.

Challenges in social and environmental reporting: The following are the main points emerged from the interactive session on the challenges in doing investigative reporting on social and environmental issues:   

-          The space available for social and environmental reporting is very limited. Both the vernacular and English newspapers give little representation even for larger issues like farmers’ suicide, rural distress, etc.

-          The daily routine of the journalists are such that it does not allow them to go looking for special stories on important social and environmental concerns like the Nregs.

-          The political orientation of the newspapers is another concern in doing objective reporting.

-          News is getting more and more entertainment oriented and journalism is losing its focus and direction. It is fast losing its ethics and the journalists are easily being diverted from real issues to issues that are trivial, something far from the real concepts of journalism. There are journalists who will publish articles only if they get money or gifts. Political parties are commissioning newspapers. Recently there are reports from Maharashtra that paid advertisements are appearing as news items in news papers.

-         Newspapers do not see the readers as readers; they see them as their customers. So issues are not getting focused in the media.

Suggestions to develop a more effective media advocacy for social and environmental issues: It is true that there is little space available for important social and environmental issues. But, even if the media is giving something flimsy or something trivial, if the journalists are serious, there is a space for serious journalism even in the crazy commercial journals. We must occupy that space.

We must positively influence the decision makers (proprietors and editors) in the magazines and newspapers as to what are the things one must look into. If they are ready to spare at least one person once in a month to look into the activities in the rural areas then the situation could gradually change. This kind of intervention at the level of the decision makers in the newspapers and also the voluntary efforts of the reporters can make a positive change in the media.

It is true that the state and national newspapers have difficulty for space. Whereas there is a lot of scope for such issues in regional papers because the readers of regional papers are the people who are affected by these social issues. Therefore they are open to write about these issues. The national newspapers have to cater for the needs of the corporate world. So there is little space for rural reporting. The first newspaper to write on Nregs in Karnataka was Andolan newspaper, the regional newspaper of Mysore. If the regional papers are given orientation to social issues they will definitely play a supportive role. So we need to associate them well. The cable TV channels are another alternative to get the news to people. But there is a need for a network to share news to the regional newspapers and channels.

We have to identify individual journalists from the newspapers whether it is good or bad and motivate them.  The activists can support them with statistics and field experience. It may not be then difficult in the age of internet and right to information to build a story based on this information.

Discussion on the possibilities of building an Activists-Media partnership: In a context where infotainment is the word of the day, there is a lot of pressure on the journalists, who are seriously committed to social causes. But playing the blame game will not solve the problem. We have to identify what media can do to highlight important social issues and to do this better what kind of support they need from the activists.

There is very little creative relationship between the journalists and the NGOs. Part of the problem is also to find an NGO which is creatively thinking. NGOs have also been corrupted. What many do is self aggrandizement. Most NGOs do not have the ability to sit together, assess what they have done, to say that this issue is important, to produce a press report, etc. There are a few people who have the ability to do so. So maybe we can identify in each state say six NGOs who would be interested to be part of this process and be willing to work with the media in providing information, in proposing that these issues be taken up.

Issue of adivasis or farmers are not important for the newspapers. They may send reporters to write a story on the fashion weeks, but are not ready to send one for a good story to the countryside. But if you are ready to give a good story without sacrificing your daily routine then they would be happy. If there is a media-activist partnership this can happen.

There is a competition between the news papers. So bringing the proprietors of newspapers together for an open session is difficult. But individuals can try to build up relationship with the proprietors and editors of newspapers and magazines. So if 30 of us in the 3 southern states do it, it means 30 editors we are building up a relationship. They are also in a difficult position. So if they can build a trust with a number of people and are aware that will help.  So with a degree of strategizing the situation can be improved at least by 25%.

Infochange India and India Together are doing an alternate kind of journalism in English. We can look into the possibility of having similar web-based journalism in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada. So the local papers can also get resources from this site.

Many state level newspapers also have a district edition which provides a lot of scope for district level news. If you make it a point to make the story interesting then maybe it will be covered by the other district level papers and it becomes state news. So at this level we need to have a workshop for the rural journalists and the freelance journalists on how to write a story, how to project it; not just copying the statistics given to them by an NGO.

For some the millennium is the year 2000, for others 2001. The 2000 celebrations were extravagant. Millions of champagne bottles popped in celebration, while billions of others woke up to their usual worries about food, health, education and shelter. Worries that the poor are fairly accustomed to, as Auden would have said. Yet we are witnessing a world of extraordinary advances in communication technology and unparalleled wealth for a few. Somebody recently stated that Bill Gates is rich enough to buy up 40 of the poorest countries in the world. Ward Morehouse, the president of the Council for International Relations in New York, says that a single corporation like Mitsubishi has an annual turnover equivalent to the GNP of India, a country with almost a million people.

In response to the precarious nature of globalisation a Latin American friend offered his paradox. Half the people of his country, he said, could not sleep because they were hungry and the other half did not sleep because they were afraid. The rich are now barricading themselves against the ‘criminal’ activities of the poor. The expression gated cities has gained currency to denote the security systems in place to ward off potential invasions by the disinherited.

On the ecological front things have reached their limits. A United Nations report says that the per capita availability of water has gone down by 50 per cent in the last 20 years and will go down a further 50 per cent in the next 20. From all accounts we are already on the brink or hurtling towards it.

It is always difficult to know what words, what feelings and what interventions are relevant in a world where most of us feel increasingly powerless, where liberal democratic institutions are used to hasten the concentration of power and wealth in fewer and fewer hands. If old-style social analysis is not fashionable anymore, what tools do we use to analyse the present situation? At least things seemed clear earlier on, where we knew that the ruling elites needed to manufacture ideological consent to keep the system going. Where we knew that the coercive mechanisms of the state, like the military, the police and the legal system, were to be used in case the ideological apparatus floundered and was unable to contain the tensions. But today there is a massive effort worldwide to justify market-driven democracy with little space provided for critical rethinking. The big peddlers of globe-baloney like Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner and their smaller counterparts in South Asia see the media as another economic enterprise with rich pickings, provided the content and the packaging are seductively displayed. To grow and prosper further they cannot afford to side-step the predicament on the grounds that we are not sure if there is anything to be done. Sadanand Menon has referred to this phenomenon as candyfloss journalism and Sasi Kumar, in one of his papers, cites Jon Tusa, the former head of BBC, to show the narrowing down of freedoms. Tusa points out that today’s journalism has “more choice, but less diversity; more information but less knowledge; more action but less news; more gratification but less satisfaction; more viewers but fewer audiences; more entertainment but less engagement; more immediacy but less depth,” and so on.

Objective, responsible and compassionate journalism is now rare, and journalists with integrity are sidelined or forced to quit. Yet there are valiant exceptions. The Hindu newspaper is a case in point. The presence of Nirmala Lakshman, joint editor of The Hindu, at the workshop underscores the paper’s commitment to responsible journalism. Whether it be issues related to women or dalits or communalism The Hindu has shown that it is possible to comment on the facts as they are and still matter on the circulation graphs. Rajib Sarkar of the Indian Express group has turned glossy like Gentleman into a socially sensitive one, without giving up the niche of a men’s magazine. An alternative magazine like Humanscape is remarkable for both its seriousness and professionalism. It offers us the best and the brightest of alternative comment.

To return to the manufactured consent that we find ourselves in, what tools do we have to demystify this reality? Is it enough to state that we have no alternatives to globalisation and therefore the best we can do is to make the process more humane through struggles to defend human rights? Or do we insist that we are witnessing behavioural and attitudinal mutations that make the human being less compassionate and more lonely, manipulated by the information and consumer society? Not everybody is equally enmeshed in this phenomenon, however. Large sections of people are busy keeping their heads above water to meet the basic requirements of food, clothing and shelter to worry too much about the hidden persuaders. But even the poor are fed dreams of becoming rich, and in the absence of meaningful political discourse and social movements, they often resort to bravado acts of violence, that the system is more than happy to classify as ‘criminal’. This is certainly the case in cities like Rio and Sao Paulo in Brazil, and the trend is likely to engulf South Asia as well unless the media and other agents educate people to critically reflect on the real structural causes of their poverty and cultural alienation. In reality the media is doing much less of all this now compared to previous times. Rocking the boat is not what the media wishes if the cost is losing government and corporate revenue. The NGO community, which in earlier times promoted critical awareness and interacted creatively with the media, is now largely immersed in pragmatic approaches like micro-credit and other development activities. Much of NGO work is donor-driven. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, communism has ceased to be a threat and donors do not anymore see the need to shore up alternatives by supporting soft radical approaches like, for example, paulo Freire’s conscientisation.

Is class analysis dead? Is social democracy the way out to bring a measure of justice  and decency to public life? Going by the performance of Tony Blair, the current icon of social democracy, there is little cause for hope, for he has made social democracy the motor of neo-liberalism. Civil society is today another buzzword in many quarters. The way ahead, the argument goes, is for citizens to empower themselves through local associations and pressure groups. The more groups and associations there are the more vibrant the democratic process. Upto now too much attention has been placed on political leadership, governments and the private sector for the development and the functioning of our social institutions. It is time that civil society came to the fore, for without that democracy would hardly mean much. Or so the reasoning goes. While there is considerable truth in this line of reasoning, the de-emphasising of the state may unwittingly play into the hands of the transnational corporations who are bent on weakening the state and grabbing unbridled power. In many parts of the world the nation-state exists only in name. The media has already blurred cultural distinctions by creating a homogenised ‘global culture’ that has further served to weaken the nation-state, just what the WTO and transnational corporations need to allow unfetted access to markets. The nation-state must eventually go, but not at the behest of the transnationals. (The 21st century is left with no choice but to cautiously move towards some form of global governance which simultaneously respects diversities.)

In the more prosperous countries ‘ deep ecological’ movements are emerging which insist that the root of all problems lies in giving primacy to the human species. According to them, human beings are only ten seconds old on the geological clock, far far younger than even the despised cockroaches. More to the point they insist that there must be a balance in nature between all species, and that human beings have far exceeded their limit. The radical ecologists insist that vast areas of the earth must be left as wilderness if we are to have a future at all. While there is some truth in this argument, it comes primarily from the richer countries, which in any case have small populations.

The grand old anarchist of this century, Mahatma Gandhi, seems increasingly relevant for 2000 and beyond for his advocacy of simple sustainable lifestyles. But Gandhism succeeds only if inner spiritual spaces are nurtured. These spiritual spaces may serve to powerfully resist the external world of consumer seduction. Sadly, the shrinking of these inner spaces is a disease of late modernity.

Most of us present at the media workshop were, in one way or other, concerned with shaping public opinion on social issues. Despite the odds against a more open media, we still continued with our particular crusades. Speaking for myself, I have often asked why I persist with it. The answer is clear: I am in it not because I do not know what else to do, but because I believe that, with all my contradictions, I am doing things I largely believe in; or, should I say, somewhat believe in. I think this would probably be true of many of us. I am certainly doing things without hugely oppressing myself and without an entirely altruistic purpose in mind. For I also matter and my convictions cannot flourish without my creative well-being. As Chief Seattle said, all things are connected. And the well-being of others must somehow be connected with our own well-being. Words, the use of language and the visual image have the potential to take me to big highs and incredible lows. I am grateful for the highs and lows. When one likes doing what one is doing it is easier to keep going, whether or not one sees light at the end of the tunnel. Nishkama Karma, as Gandhi would put it. Action without attachment to the fruits of one’s action. The workshop partly dwelt on this personal side of resistance, which is both dissenting and celebratory in nature. This was important, for we are all human beings motivated by the convictions and ambiguities we experience around us. It is not only ideology that motivates us, but compassion as well. And life in all its adventure and paradox. Which is why we don’t crumble when our ideologies do.

If we all met in Bangalore through the Transforming Word-Pipal Tree programme it was in the hope that we could modestly, and collectively, help each other out. Perhaps we would hear words and experiences that might resonate within us, both personally and socially. We had hoped to mine a few nuggets that could give us some clarity, at least provisional. Thankfully, we were not disappointed and the modest expectations were reached. Even if we did not go away with certainties we had enriched ourselves with stories of personal struggles and creativity. We were comforted that the struggles that took shape through our writings, films and other efforts at communication were not only social but also personal. For even the least of our efforts, when they carried some conviction, led us from one small hope to another. This was the era of small hopes and little nirvanas where the effort and fulfilment were as important as the intended results. In hindsight the century did not close with a whimper as far as we were concerned. The WTO fiasco in Seattle showed that things were far from being lost. As the French philosopher Edgar Morin put it, the 21st century began with Seattle. Thomas Kocherry of the fishworkers federation was in Seattle during the protests. He said, “if the 20th century will be remembered for de-colonisation then the 21st century bids fair to free us from the shackles of the transnational corporations.” We look ahead with hope. The human spirit cannot be overpowered by the might of the transnationals or by the sophistry of the candyfloss media.

Based on discussions with the participants the workshop considered the following areas:

1. Understanding the present trends of commercialisation in the media.

2. The implications of these trends to the democratic process.

3. The interventions we make in fighting communalism,  supporting environmental issues, human rights, etc.

4. What ‘intervention’ means to us in a personal and creative sense.

5. The spaces available in the mainstream media, in alternative possibilities, on the Net, etc.

December 1999.

Pipal Tree through its print-media programme, The Transforming Word, organised a workshop in December 1999 to discuss the effects of a media that obfuscates the real issues and to discuss the role of the alternative media. Many of the essays in this category were presented at, or are the outcome of, that workshop. Siddhartha edited these essays for the April 2000 issue of Humanscape, ‘Fluff: Crisis in the Candyfloss Media’.

Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre, Bangalore

Pipal Tree invited students from the Bangalore School of Journalism in January 2007 for a one-day workshop on “Media and Environmental Activism” as part of the International Alliance of Journalists program.  The goals of the workshop were to introduce the students to the Alliance, explore the possibility of building and supporting a community of journalists locally who could increase the space for social reporting in the mainstream media and to show how Pipal Tree has worked in the areas of culture, environment and media over the years.

Siddhartha began the workshop by telling of his experience in journalism and the feelings of isolation, fatigue and low morale that accompany writing on social issues.  This spurred the idea for a support group for journalists who did not want to fall into the trap of infotainment writing.  With that in mind, these are the Alliance’s objectives:

• To explore the possibility of journalists and social activists forming informal networks that may lobby politicians and bureaucrats to implement social programs.
• To reflect on the role of the media in creating a vibrant civil society where local groups and organizations play a major role in tackling local issues in a participatory and democratic spirit.
• To see the media as a humanizing and culturally energizing force that can generate hope and initiative among a large number of people.
• To monitor the process of globalization in the interests of the poor and the marginalized peoples.

The students also felt that this type of network for journalists could be a great asset to the overall community of writers.

Noted Journalist Arun Subramaniam of Bangalore, was the keynote speaker for this program.  He has worked in both print and television in India and Hong Kong, focusing primarily on business.  One of his most successful efforts was an investigation into the causes of the 1984 gas leak from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in central India, which claimed thousands of lives.  His main point to the students was that fair media can help market forces to stay ethical and that media can help in intervene in other areas such as the relatively new bill ‘The Right to Work’ or ‘The Right to Information’ as well as environmental issues.

The second part of the workshop had the students walking through Fireflies Intercultural Center and discovering it as a place with no guru, but one with a deep dedication to the environment and also a place where individuals could come together and discuss the issues that make us who we are.  The workshop concluded with talks of creating more communities for journalists who are committed to exploring issues beyond the demands of their politically and entertainment minded newspapers.

Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre, Bangalore

In December 2008 Pipal Tree conducted a two-day workshop for south Indian journalist to consider the role of the Media in creating a deeper understanding of social and environmental issues that pervade detrimentally the lives of everyone, but more accurately, those of the poor.  The objectives of this workshop were to examine government and institutional policies in regard to the media and enthuse journalists to take up an in-depth posture on social and environmental reporting.

Twenty journalists from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu participated and their diversity created a immense scope in which to address the following objectives:

• Exploring the possibility of enhancing our social and ecological reporting.
• Understanding the impact of the global economic meltdown on the poor and the marginalized.
• Beginning a south Indian and national debate on “Vision, Ethics, Democracy and Participation” in media institutions.
• Challenges of creating a south Indian journalists’ network.

There were panel discussions on:

• Social challenges and the media
• Environmental challenges and the media
• Vision, ethics, democracy and the media

A commonality in terms of observation among journalists of all the three states surfaced early in the workshop that the characteristics of mainstream media were:

• The media as a sensational product with the obvious objective of revenue generation and promoting a captive market
• Vested interests between the media, business houses and corporates for mutual gratification and financial succor, and establishment stability
• The media as a manipulative tool and readership exploitation by political blocks
• The media’s social context with overtones of religious and communal bias

Devi Bharathi and Muralidharan, journalists from Tamil Nadu, gave an in-depth picture of the alternative media which focused on social issues and how mainstream media was populist in nature and focused mainly on the film industry of the state.

Journalists from Kerala contended that their mainstream media did not preoccupy their publications with sensationalism and the film world, and that little magazines although abundant in Kerala, did not feature as bitingly as those of Tamil Nadu but did acknowledge problems the Kerala media faced with the issues of vision, ethics, democracy and participation.

K. Mujeeb Rahman presented a paper at this point which delineated the characteristics of the typical broadsheet publications in Kerala. According to him fascist communalism is a threat to Indian society played down by mainstream media due to bias or lack of moral perspective.

The Karnataka journalists, Srinivas, Sathyanarayana Karur and Yogesh Bhat from Sagar district, agreed to the need of establishing a viable journalists’ network between states to facilitate information exchange and flow to effectively grapple key issues and develop a sensitized readership on a large scale.

Ramakrishna, editor of ‘Mid Day’, a Bangalore broad sheet, provided an insight into the commercial aspect of running a news paper. The production of the paper cost more than its retail price, market competitiveness being a major consideration, resulting in complete dependence on revenues generated from advertisements. This is the case with most news papers with some variation; in some cases prominently advertisement oriented and in some cases less advertisement driven. The usual 60% news coverage and 40% advertisement ratio (e.g. The Hindu) is not observed by many papers (e.g. The Times of India). Nagesh Hegde, visiting professor of the Indian Institute of journalism was in accord with Ramakrishna’s observation.

Nagesh Hegde next spoke on the challenges related to training journalists on environmental reporting. He stressed on the importance of recognizing the extent of the imminent disaster to befall mankind precipitated by global warming and climate change and that the media had a huge responsibility to sensitize the public and authorities on efforts that will have to be made to mitigate, let alone avert, such extraneous conditions that will impact on our society and with more assured ferocity on the poor.

The proceedings of 13^th Dec culminated with Arun Subramanium’s (visiting professor of the Indian Institute of Journalism) talk on understanding the impact of the global economic meltdown on the poor and the marginalized sections of our society.

The proceedings of 14^th Dec commenced with Arun Subramanium’s presentation on ‘Vision, Ethics, Democracy and Participation’. He defined norms of regulations and preferred regulatory standards adopted by the media to avoid libel and government censorship under extreme cases of a national state of emergency.

This was followed by discussions on key issues drawn from the preceding sessions and defining the challenges facing journalists to develop a media network on social and environmental issues and triggering the blossom of a process of media reforms and ethical reporting in south India. As a finale to the proceedings of the two day workshop, the participants were in accord with Siddhartha that:

• there was a need to deepen the values, ethics, morals and vision within the media
• There was a need to enhance writing and reporting skills
• There was a need to continue working with journalists and journalism students.
• There was a need to develop a network for information exchange on issues and collaboration among journalists.

In conclusion, the workshop demonstrated that the print media lacked a unified agenda on social issues and the environment and that a stimulus was required to change the current trend and sharpen its focus on the principles of vision, ethics, democracy and participation. The workshop also demonstrated that the media has likeminded conscientious journalists who are indeed interested in working towards establishing the media as socially responsible, sensitive and a conscious mirror to society. The participants resolved that for a start, a monthly article should appear in three of the south Indian languages, factual and truthful sensitizing the readership with issues of relevance without bias.

Kerala is observing the hundredth anniversary of the extradition of Ramakrishna Pilla by the Travancore government for his fearless journalism.  The editor of Swadehabhimani newspaper Ramakrishna Pilla who terrorized the government with the might of his pen and the publisher of that paper Vakkam Khader Maulavi are even today the shining stars in the firmament of Kerala journalism.  For them journalism was a fight for right and justice.

But today, for the publisher journalism is a commercial enterprise and for the journalists, a livelihood.  Earlier the newspapers were the voice of the oppressed. Today the newspapers wash their hands off these oppressed and marginalised people. Their eyes are on the affluent. They do not consider as a topic the news of adivasis who are usurped off their lands and who are denied jobs. Adivasis do not read newspapers. If you write for them there will not be an increase of even a single newspaper. On the contrary, if anything is written about the oppressors, or exploiters of these people, there will be reduction in the number of copies sold. Kerala journalism has circulation as its aim. Malayala Manorama that stand way ahead in circulation has a circulation of 17 lakh copies; and the second Mathrubhoomi, 13 lakhs. Papers like Madhyamam, Deshabhimani, Kerala Kaumudi, Deepika, Mangalam have circulations of upwards of three lakhs. Newspapers have great influence on the reading public. The newspapers do not take advantage of their influence for social welfare or development.

A newspaper works according to the likes and dislikes of the publisher.  The Managing Director of Mathrubhoomi M P Virendrakumar was a former cabinet minister and present state president of Janata Dal. Till the last Lok Sabha election his party was with the CPM led Left Democratic Front (LDF).  During that period, Mathrubhoomi backed LDF to the hilt.  Later Janata Dal parted company with LDF and joined the congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).  Mathrubhoomi gunned for LDF and went the whole hog in support of UDF.

In Kerala there is a paper for each religion and caste. The Muslim community has five daily newspapers – Madhyamam, Chandrika, Varthamanam, Tejas and Siraj.  Christians have Deepika and Izhavars (backward community) have Kerala Kaumudi.  Each political party also has a newspaper – CPM has Deshabhimani; Muslim League, Chandrika; CPI, Janayugam; Congress, Veeshanam; BJP, Janma Bhoomi.

There are about 12 TV channels in Kerala.  Three channels are there for news alone – India Vision, Asianet, and Manorama News.  Channels do not pose any threat to newspapers.  With the advent of the channels, the number and sway of the newspapers are on the increase. The newspapers are more trusted than channels.  The advertising revenue to the newspapers is also on the ascendant.  With technological progress, even small-time papers run up a profit.

The only threat Kerala journalism faces is that of desertion by talented and honest journalists.  In a situation where they cannot pursue honest journalism they are forced to seek new pastures. These journalists who are against the commercialization of newspaper and are against kowtowing to political interests go without jobs.

Competition in one-up-man sensationalism is another blow to journalism.  Each paper tries to concoct extremely sensational stories to increase the sales of its paper.  Dalit violence and Love Jihad are some of these sensationalized stories. Love Jihad is picked up from the RSS website by quite a few newspapers as fact. The Love Jihad news even created animosity between Muslim and Hindu students in the educational campuses.  What Muslims consider as a holy word Jihad becomes a heinous term and the Kerala papers acted as a sharp axe of RSS in their vile way.

The other news of the increasing violence of the dalits, the most oppressed of our society, is another cooked up story. The newspapers that should uphold the rights of the mariginalised and oppressed dalits make them, on the contrary, laughing stocks and further victims of oppression.

- Translated by Aravind Menon

Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre, Bangalore

Report:

As a constituent of the International Alliance of Journalists, Pipal Tree held a journalists workshop at Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre in Bangalore. This two days’ workshop held on the 8^th and 9^th of December 2007 were attended by 20 journalists from the major daily newspapers of Kerala, cutting across their ideological stance. The combined readership of these newspapers would be about 12 million readers.

The objective of the workshop has been in consonance with that of the Alliance in that it tried to explore the possibilities of expanding the space for social reporting in mainstream media, and to encourage journalists to give greater attention to social and environmental issues. Over the years, the Fourth Estate fraternity has often expressed a sense of isolation, ennui and low morale when working on these issues. The publications they work for seem to be less concerned with socially meaningful writing than with political and infotainment writing. In such a context, it is imperative to informally network with journalists to see if we can raise a support group: a community of concerned and socially-aware journalists, all over India, who could interact with one another through small group meetings, e-mail and a blog (devoted to reflections on the experience of development writing – the frustrations and rewards). The larger objective is to explore the possibility of journalists and social activists forming informal networks that may lobby politicians and bureaucrats to implement social programmes.

The media can, to a large extent, play a significant role in creating a vibrant civil society where local groups and organisations play a major part in tackling local issues in a participatory and democratic spirit. It can become, as it functioned sporadically, the face of a humanising and culturally energising entity that can instill hope and initiative among a large number of people and as the monitor of the process of globalisation in the interests of the poor and the marginalised peoples.

The immediate agenda of the workshop, however, was to discuss the following points.

1. Exploring and using the available space for cultural, social and ecological reporting.

2. Creating a network of socially engaged journalists in Kerala.

3. Looking at the short and long term possibility of strengthening institutions like the press council, ombudsman etc.

4. Exploring the possibility to create an interface between journalists, proprietors and the reading public.

8^th December

The workshop began with the self-introduction by the participants representing 10 major dailies from Kerala, which included the leading ones like Malayala Manorama (National Readership Survey places it at the top in India), Mathrubhumi, Deshabhimani, and Madhyamam.

Introductions over, Siddhartha, the representative of the International Alliance of journalists and Director of Pipal Tree welcomed the gathering and gave a summary of the activities of the Alliance.  In South Asia the emphasis was on highlighting issues pertaining to child rights, tribal (adivasi) empowerment, employment rights, peace and inter-religious conflict resolution and the environment. In his brief talk he drew the attention of the audience to the impending danger to our environment.  He pointed out how Bangladesh and the Netherlands could be submerged under water (and we do not have to wait very far into the future for this tragedy to happen, he sounded the alarm.) and how the melting of the Himalayan glaciers can affect our rivers. All due to global warming and other kinds of nature’s revenge resulting from our over-rated development activities that did not factor in the horrendous consequences. In the future we can expect refugees of different kind – the environment refugees torn away from their homelands when they will not have a physical homeland to lay claim to.   He also underlined the need of a vigilant and socially responsible media that could deal with the human rights violations that came with neo-liberal globalization.

He then invited the participants to share the present hue of journalism as they see it, especially from the perspective of the most literate state like Kerala. Since their opinions have more or less over-lapped, only the salient points are given here.

Kerala leads not only in literacy but in newspaper readership as well. There are about twenty small and big dailies in the State.  And, with a paper like Malayala Manorama claiming a readership of over 1.5 million and Mathrubhumi, 1 million, one can understand how the dailies have become a significant part of the Malayali’s life. Yet the profession as practised here cannot be by a long chalk credited with all that journalism is believed to stand for – impartiality and neutrality.   When the publishing houses have their eyes on profit by increasing circulation, their prime aim is to please many and displease as few.   The writing is now more tailor-made to fit in the middle-class culture.  In such a mind-set, where is the scope for upholding social issues like human-rights?

In such a scenario, the participants were more or less unanimous in expressing their disgruntlement with their profession.  Early idealism at the beginning of the career gives way to a lackadaisical attitude, which is translated into doing what their bosses want.  Rare is the journalist who regards journalism as more than a way of making a living; no more is it looked upon as a socially significant and noble vocation.  Of course, most of them admitted that they too have contracted the disease of modernity – that of I before you and others.

Another aspect of journalism that is egregiously more patent than anywhere else is the ownership of publications by different political parties – CPM (the communist party) has its mouthpiece, so have the Congress party, the Muslim League and others.  Their main game is promoting their own interests and ideologies and missing no chance to sling mud at each other.

In this kind of self-serving journalistic set-up, news that should concern every conscientious Indian is given a step-motherly treatment.  The plight of tribals (adivasis) fisher-folk and people condemned to mere existence are given short-shrift.  They are subjected to constant exploitation and inhuman treatment, yet not much exposure is given to these atrocities.  But their heart-wrenching stories have little import to the present species of readers who have been constantly fed infotainment dainties like the pre-nuptial, nuptial and post-nuptial stories of Bollywood actors, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachan. These eat up more and more columns inch and that too front-paged. Also, the number of readers among the deprived and marginalsied are minimal.  There is sporadic reporting of mass suicides of farmers in some states or mindless destruction of nature to provide infrastructural facilities or private construction works, often illegal, but these do not occupy enough centre-stage to impel the public for action. In short, in Kerala, as in many other parts of the world, Gresham’s Law is active in journalism: the bad currency driving out the good.

All of them are more or less equally convinced that what they have heard of as committed journalism as practised by their predecessors is no more a fact.  Infotainment and political shenanigans sweep burning social issues under, so to say, the carpet. Sensationalism seems to rule the roost.

Siddhartha introduced Mr. Leo Saldhana, environmental activist, to the participants.  He said that Leo and the organization he heads, the Environmental Support Group, have been in the forefront of all issues that affects our environment.  He and his organization not merely raise their voice against any kind of assault on environment but act – the number of pubic interest litigations Leo and his group have mounted against powerful vested interests who blithely flout environmental protection laws is legion.  And these in the teeth of threats to their person and other kinds of harassments. But they have stood their ground despite all this, armed only with the courage of their convictions.  As recently as a couple of months ago Leo was manhandled by the hired security personnel of an extremely influential contractor who is behind the construction of a new and needless road to Mysore that illegally encroached upon the lands of many poor people.  Even his complaint to the police was not admitted because the security people who attacked him happen to be ex-policemen.  And this despite the photographs of the incidents shown as proof of the incident!  (Here, Leo, with fetching humility, made light of the incident saying that he never expects pats from the powers-that-be.)

Discussion on Environment:

It is in a lighter vein that Leo Saldanha began his talk.

He had some pertinent questions to pose.  Are we truly committed to social and environmental issues and causes?   How do we approach them?  The audience did not find the questions rhetorical; they averred that they too in their own way were seeking answers to them.

Lip-service to the safeguarding of the degenerating natural world, Leo continued, is now a routine with many.  For all you know and care, they all must be reading from the same script. We see each year the number of ‘protected’ habitats (national parks, for example) grows proportionately to the worsening condition in those already in existence. Each year measures for pollution control are announced even as pollution increase from the offending sources and new processes and activities further contaminate the world around us.

All this in the name of development.  Development of what?  A life style of opulence where energy-guzzling gadgets and fossil-fuel depleting vehicles become the order of the day in trying not to keep with the Joneses but go one better over them.  At this point, a few from the audience interjected stating that the boom in construction sector in Kerala has led to irresponsible and illegal sand mining from the river beds.  Some of the famous rivers of Kerala, once flush with water, like Bharatha Puzha in Malabar area, have dried up into pathetic strings that can be barely called rivers.

Leo whole-heartedly concurred by citing the example of Bangalore where illegal quarrying of stones in which political leaders themselves have great stakes for construction. All the while destruction of valuable vegetation goes apace.

Where are all these leading to?

Tens of thousands of animal and plant species are doomed beyond recovery.

We hear, now, a great deal of the ‘new threat’ to biodiversity – the diversity of life – and read about it in magazines and newspapers. But the conditions obtaining today make it more appropriate to talk of the ‘dying’ of biodiversity thereby giving a truer picture of what is happening.

Preservation of biodiversity is acknowledged to be of crucial importance to human life cycle.  When biological wealth suffers, it is difficult to attribute economic value to it in the same way as material wealth.  But, it is becoming more and more clear that biological wealth is beyond measure – their lifecycles and food-chains provide the very foundation of human existence.

How far-reaching can be the effects of degradation of biodiversity on global environment?  Our tropical rainforests contain the world’s richest ecosystems and the greatest variety of animal and plant life.  Half of these were wantonly felled in the single decade of 1980s, with scant regard for their relationship to our climate, atmosphere and environment, leave alone their economic significance to the livelihoods of indigenous people.  The trees that grow fast and die young are incapable of storing as much carbon dioxide as the hardy perennials of rainforests.  The annual uptake of carbon dioxide by plant and animal life is estimated to be much less than its output from human action. And the ever increasing industrial emissions of this gas further increase the danger of un-stored carbon dioxide and the consequent accelerated global warming and poor rainfall. Also, there is the threat of other noxious gases like methane and nitrogen oxide.

These issues are constantly talked about by the media and environmentalists.  But no long-term solution solutions are in sight.  How can there be solutions, some of the participants asked? The political panjandrums we vote into power in collusion with profit-before-anything business houses for whom pushing the growth-rate is more important (because the rich grows richer) than sustainable development.  Journalist Radhakrishnan felt that all is not yet lost.  Media can play a stellar role in checking our suicidal tendency.  Our attitudes, views, perceptions and life styles will have to be changed.  When technology developed, we called it development.  But this so-called development has not done anything to ameliorate the conditions of the poor.

The relevance of environmental journalism is demanding greater urgency.  It must wring a change in the consciousness of people in general.  The growing number of you’ve- never-had-it-so-good middle-class, thanks to the economic reforms of the past fifteen years, doesn’t get overly excited about anything that isn’t of immediate concern. They appear to be content with the status quo, as long as it doesn’t hamstring their upward mobility.  The departments concerned with environmental issues, Leo said, are by and large ignorant about the wider implications of their action or inaction.  He spoke about some of his futile attempts at convincing the powers-that-be.

Leo and his group filed a public interest litigation in the court against the company that was awarded the contract for the Mysore road, especially sighting the illegal encroachment of lands by the poor and helpless by the company.  In the name of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), land is taken from the poor farmers and further havoc is wrought about in terms of development.  The question that has to be asked is who are the beneficiaries of such developments, that turn out to be social and ecological disasters?

Each individual in his or her own way can adopt effective measure to reduce the burden on environment.  For example, Leo has painted his roof white.  Perhaps it might, he jokingly said, go against any aesthetic cannon, but it keeps his house cool, eliminating the need for fans or similar electricity consuming facilities.

He was to, some extent, skeptical about the role of the media. He narrated an incident in support of this.  A reporter from a leading English daily interviewed him about encroachment by builders who take away the land of the poor for their building projects, but her story was killed and the editor advanced in extenuation of his decision that the piece went against the editorial policy of the paper. Actually the real reason was that one of the board members of the newspaper was a partner in the building project.

While he was all praise for workshops like the one at Fireflies but was of the opinion that they should focus on practical solutions.  At the same time, they should not go to the extreme of some kind of ecological fascism, undermining any kind of development.  As if to drive home this exhortation by Leo, some among the audience referred to the shameful incident of the press camp at Muthanga in Kerala.  (On February 19, 2003, the police, on the then government order, fired at advivasis (tribals) in Muthanga forest who were struggling for gaining land rights and establishing adivasi gram panchayats.  Many lives were lost. This denial of the right to live is a threat meted out by the State, not only against the adivasis, but also against the dalits, the landless and the poor in general.)

9^th December

The second day started off, before the speaker of the day, Arun Subramaniam, arrived, with Siddhartha taking the invitees around Fireflies.  Fireflies, he said, is a unique eco-ashram – an ashram without a guru; a place of refuge, introspection, meditation, and activism – a secular ashram, if you like.  Fireflies is open to both spiritual and secular initiatives and is deeply involved in social change and environmental action. Its aim is to bring together a community of friends who revere the earth as their first mother. The visitors were enchanted by the verdant green ambience of the place, its scattered buildings acting as a relief to highlight nature, the sculptures dotting here and there. This is a place, he underlined, where people can go deep within themselves, to recharge themselves before they return to the world. To go inward, to take care of the earth, to cultivate the soil, to work hard, to meet people, to discuss the issues that make us who we are, and to bring people together from all over the world –this is Fireflies’ chosen dharma.

The second day’s lecture by Arun Subramaniam started after the tea break.

Siddhartha introduced Arun to the audience. He was the Business Editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and is now settled in Bangalore.  Arun studied economics and law at the Universities of Madras and Bangalore, respectively, and initially worked as a project consultant to a Singapore-based NGO working with rural communities across South and Southeast Asia. He subsequently practiced labour law in Bangalore and Mumbai before turning to research and then to business journalism. He still continues with his occasional writings on business matters in publications here and abroad apart from being a visiting faculty in one of the premier journalism colleges in Bangalore.

Discussion on the state of the media:

Arun added a few more words about himself. He has worked mainly in business journalism; combining corporate, financial and economic analysis with coverage of legal and regulatory issues, particularly relating to the workplace and the environment. He considers the investigation into the notorious Bhopal gas tragedy that claimed thousands of lives as one of his great and meaningful achievements. Business India, where he was working then, first published his findings, which were subsequently confirmed by federal investigators and formed part of the prosecution’s case against the company. He is also the co-author of The Bhopal Tragedy (CIPA Press, NY, 1985). Arun has worked for leading Indian media including India Today and United Television and has regularly appeared as a political and economics commentator on CNBC Asia and CNN.

Arun began his talk with a tongue-in-cheek criticism of present day journalism in India.  Of course, he added that he spoke only from his understanding of English journalism, as he had no acquaintance with regional varieties and if at all he had any, it was only by second remove.  But, he said, what he had to say might be largely applicable to the press in general.  Journalism as it was practised in the 70s and 80s has literally become a thing of the past.  He laid the blame squarely on the wimpish editors (He had some choice epithets for editors that raised some loud guffaws from the listeners.) who daren’t stick their necks out that would in any way affect the advertising revenue.   Then there were at least slightly more than a handful of publications that tried exposing social injustice with relentless and crusading zeal and not letting the perpetrators get away from their atrocities.  To name but one instance was the Bhopal gas tragedy in which thousand of people went blind and the effect of which still continues.  When he was asked whether he was given a free rein to pursue the story, Arun said that the publication he was then working for did not hinder him in any way; on the contrary, it supported him to the hilt in getting the story out with all the skill in his journalistic armour. He added that it was not a kind of personal or institutional aggrandizement, but a matter of genuine social concern. Perhaps, on hind sight, he felt that this kind of tenacity for expose might have been largely due to the world press as it was then.

The young journalists present were pleasantly incredulous and added that they would not expect that from their publications.

What is happening today is a complete antithesis; a complete turnabout – a total abandonment of social responsibility.  By way of an example, he cited one of the major dailies of some respectable vintage, the Times of India. Under the dispensation of a new management that took reins some years ago from the earlier management, the paper’s credo became advertising revenue or revenue of any kind even if it meant all ethics of journalism is jettisoned.  So much so, stories began to be considered print-worthy if it is weighted with monetary consideration.

We have in Kerala a different kind of priority, said one of the journalist-participant.  Factions of the same party would have interests in two different publications; like the one headed by Pinarayi Vijayan and the other supporting Achyuthanandan, both belonging to the same Communist party but at ideological logger-heads.

Arun hasn’t, he admitted, come across such personal-biased political slander in English journalism.

For the present state of affairs, Arun’s indictment was against the present day western life style and a never ending slew of latest mod-cons that have made great inroads into Indian life via all media – television, films, fashion magazines and the like. Journalism has become flamboyant; naturally the media reflect the mind-set of the middle class reader and viewers who have developed an appetite for candy-floss infotainment. Where have they the time and inclination for serious news that do not directly, they think, impinge on their lives?  A view that Leo earlier and the participants were in close agreement. What do the suicides of farmers in Punjab, Maharashtra and Karanataka affect them?

Even issues like water, a commodity on which the future wars might be fought, do not merit the attention they deserve since they are not of immediate consequence.  If such a state has come to pass, according to Arun, it is mainly because of the leadership – a bunch of self-serving editors whose education stops at getting some fancy degrees but without imbibing in them a sense of values, values that would make for responsible journalism.  Earlier the editors were different; they stressed on accurate, fact-based, unbiased reporting.  There was a clear demarcation between comments, factual things and advertorial.  Credibility was of paramount importance then; now it has become a casualty. Time was when the news room and the editorial department were out-of-bounds for the marketing team.  Today the picture is different in moist publishing houses; every news item is often vetted by the marketing department lest it rub up the wrong way some powerful advertiser thereby jeopardizing the ad revenue.

The malaise is not only in the media world; it is endemic to the society as a whole. India’s almost galloping growth-rate may lull us into a euphoric state; but that is not sustainable.  It all boils down to governance.

Politicisation of every sphere of life has been our bane.  The people who vote our leaders into power are largely the illiterate poor and the backward classes.  The middle class, caught up as they are with their own narrow self-interests, is least bothered about the larger issue of proper governance. Even in Kerala the most literate of states, it is the poor and less educated exercise their franchise and they, the audience reflected, are swayed by the demagogic vapourings of the leaders and their mouth organs – the publications blessed by them.

That exactly is the reason, Arun insisted, why greater public participation in politics has become an imperative.  We do have mechanisms that are calculated to empower people; but they mostly remain idle for want of public will.  Governments both at the centre and the states should be made accountable to the people.  Seventy-seven percent of India lives on Rs 20 a day, but only half-hearted measures are taken to mitigate such appalling poverty.  Whichever party comes to power, governance follow the old familiar grooves; that of inaction.  The Left will go hammer and tongs at the ruling right criticizing it vehemently without offering any constructive solutions.  The right, including the BJP and its allies indulge in self-destructive and self-defeating solutions. Coalition too is of no significance as we have seen.  No doubt, many progressive legislation have been passed since independence but not to much avail.  It is high-time that a re-thinking of the entire democratic process is called for. This is where the media come in to generate the necessary critical awareness across all sections of people, be it secular, spiritual or religious.  The media can act as a powerful watch dog.

As an example of sensible governance, he extolled the scheme Mr Guhan, former Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu Government during an earlier ministry of Mr Karunanidhi.  He introduced certain measures that went some way to increase the GDP of 2% to 20%.  To induce the children from poor backgrounds, he introduced the mid-day meal programme.  Since he found that the most impoverished families are further impoverished by wedding expenses of the daughters, he introduced the system of giving Rs 5000/- to families  with the proviso that the girl should reach the age of 21 for the family to be eligible for the scheme.  An effective way of raising the marriageable age.  As a third measure, he introduced a kind of dole for the aged poor – Rs 10/- per head per day.

It devolves on the media to explore such alternatives and workable solutions to improve our society.  Then only can journalism be called development journalism.  And there is still there is hope for, if not an ideal mode of journalism, the re-introduction of at least a modicum of sensible and socially responsible journalism.  And the readers are the change-makers, if one goes by the change for the better in the editorial approach of the Times of India.

Group Reflection

For the purpose of eliciting the response to the talks and the mutual interaction the participants were asked to form three groups and each group was given time to discuss and deliberate on the points they wanted to air.

Group One:

• Though they admit that their allegiance is to society, they are forced to be subservient to the interests of the owners of publications to safeguard their jobs. Often, socially volatile and sensitive topics like inter-religious conflicts gain a kind of parochial colouration depending on the editorial policy of the publication one works for.
• Faithfulness to impartial reporting is cast aside.
• The news of the suicides of farmers in Waynad was blown out of proportion.
• The reporting of the plight of tribals (adivasis) of Muthanga was weak. Such a serious revolt of landless tribals needed serious investigative reporting, which did not happen.
• Freedom of expression is curbed by many newspapers.
• Since the educated middle class favour infotainment, that is what the media cater to.
• News about acts of lawlessness and socially harmful news do not merit much support, but this often finds the limelight.

Group Two:

• The deterioration of social values in general has affected journalism as well.  Stories are twisted to suit the readership.
• Opportunities and spaces for journalism as it should be are unused, abused or misused.
• Freedom of expression does not entitle one to invade the privacy of individuals unless their acts are tantamount to be harmful to society.
• The various kinds of tantalising gift offers to journalists effects their sense of fairplay and objectivity.
• Journalists should bear in mind the need for highlighting acts that contribute to human rights.

Group Three:

• Any society is like the proverbial curate’s egg – good and bad in parts.
• The prime duty of a journalist is towards commonly accepted healthy social values.  His or her tenet should revolve around truth, justice and impartiality.
• The problem is in properly defining what is good and bad and who the arbitrators can be.
• Appraisal of values is purely relative and solely depends on the mental make-up of the appraiser.
• The allegiance of a journalist should be with those who are denied justice.
• What is happening is that different publications uphold their own brand of biased values irrespective of their social implications.
• In India, importance is given to negative journalism.  Society apparently wants it.  Publications are servile to the advertisers.  Privacy of the individual is largely disregarded.
• Journalism does not receive the kind of encouragement and public appreciation that society gives to business and corporate sectors.

Conclusions

The workshop was concluded with some observations and remarks made by the participants about the workshop. Some of these are:

• In Kerala, few such workshops are held. This workshop brought about a fellowship of journalists, and motivated them to think of the purpose of their vocation. This informal network should continue and morally support each other.

• The workshop has created the motivation for taking up socially vital subjects, individually or jointly.
• Follow-up of this workshop was necessary. The Alliance of Journalists must help continue the process, especially in organizing specialized sessions like the present one.
• It is not possible to enter into a discussion on the Press Council, for want of time and adequate preparation. At the moment the Press Council is a largely ineffective body. To make it play its legitimate role required a process that would take a few years time.
• The issue of commercialization of the press, and publishing ‘paid’ articles was of serious concern, and there was the need to bring ethical values into the discussion, especially among the owners of the media institutions.
• This workshop was free from conflicts and competition. Some who attended similar workshop held elsewhere were disappointed with the out come with these turning out to be conflictual and acrimonious. Despite the participants belonging to competitive publications, the overall effect of the workshop was in bringing unity.
• The journalists felt motivated to overcome limitations of the professions in highlighting stories that deserve to be printed and this meant even taking the stories to other publications that would see them in print.

By way of valediction, the participants said unanimously that their coming together here helped them see things from a new perspective, in a different way.  With the new insights gained at the workshop, they said they would endeavour to make a mark as contributors to healthy social change. How this can be done is of prime importance and they hoped that a few more such gatherings would steer them on the right course.

Venue: Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre, Bangalore

Organized by: Pipal Tree & the International Journalists Alliance

Report:

The Journalists Alliance organized an intensive two-day conference of journalists working in the Kannada language media. Twenty journalists participated in the conference held on 9^th and 10^th August 2008. The meeting was extremely vibrant and interactive, prompting several of them to state that this was the first meeting of its kind to be held for Kannada journalists.

Siddhartha’s welcome speech outlined the objectives of the International Journalists Alliance and stressed the goal of getting journalists to do in-depth social and environmental reporting.

The following are the problems the journalists felt they faced in reaching that goal:

• The media establishment and the reading public are going through a kind of ‘poverty fatigue’. Apart from the more dramatic issues related to farmers’ suicides, other matters related to rural and urban poverty, and human right-abuses are not seen as sufficiently newsworthy.
• Sometimes the issues are reported rather emotionally, for example the suicides of farmers. The emotional nature of the reporting excludes the analysis needed to understand the issues related to the collapse of agriculture in many areas.
• Ten years ago some of the media institutions had unions which defended the interests of journalists and other staff. But today all these unions have broken up, and the journalists are largely defenseless. A favourite way of harassing journalists is to shift them from one district to another, creating enormous hardship to them and their families.
• A part of the responsibility of journalists is the insistence by the management to report events and stories that have no social relevance whatever. The majority of journalists have resigned themselves to spend a part of their precious time reporting gossip on film actors, other sensational events, etc., which can increase circulation.
• The growing importance of TV journalism has made the competition for the print media very difficult.  Many people who watch television expect the newspapers to be exciting, with reports of scandals and juicy stories. News analysis and reporting on the problems of poverty are almost considered boring.
• When reporting on technical subjects like coal-based power plants, or genetically modified cultivation, like growing B.T.cotton, rural journalists find it difficult to understand many of the issues. If this meeting led to a network of journalists in the region, perhaps a way could be found to providing the technical information needed.
• Sometimes the issues have two sides to them, making it difficult to take a stand for or against. Again the difficulty to take a stand is because the journalists lack information and political understanding.

K.P. Suresha talked about the media becoming a commercial venture and the pressure of financial profitability that caters to the demands of the newly created consumerist class.

Nagesh Hegde talked about the need for more environmental consciousness among journalists.

Parusharam Kalal said that in the context of globalization, powerful economic forces were at work that prevented the media from reporting fearlessly and objectively.

B.L. Sridar had a different problem with the situation of farmers committing suicide in North Karnataka.  The media was able to offer criticism about the situation, but not a single journalist was able to offer concrete solutions.

The journalists also reflected on their role in dealing with inter-religious conflict and violence.  Many journalists are themselves confused and influenced by narrow religious views rather than secular ones Also, the rise of religious extremism and identity politics would distract the nation from the real issues of poverty, social justice and climate change.

Mujafer Assadi spoke about the new economy and displacement.  While this is a major problem both in the state and the country, very few well-writing articles are available that investigated the topic.

The concluding session led to the formation of the Kannada Journalists Alliance where each participant volunteered to work on a specific issue with reference to his or her local district.

Venue: Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre, Bangalore

Participating states: Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu

This conference is a progression of the efforts we are making in developing a media platform for journalists in order to provide information and analytical insights on Nregs that may help them in reporting on the various aspects of the scheme (particularly pertaining to women’s empowerment, adivasis, decision making and local governance, creation of productive assets, etc.).

The central objective of this conference is to develop an effective media advocacy for Nregs.  We intend to achieve this through a participatory process involving critical appraisals of implementation of Nregs today and presentations by participants of case studies specific to their respective regions. This is intended to establish media as a key element in information sourcing, support and intervention.

Contact:

Pipal Tree

Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre
Dinnepalya, Kaggalipura P.O.
Bangalore – 82 India

Website:  www.pipaltree.org.in
Phone: +91-80-28432725