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Editors Guild pulls up leading Gujarati dailies for coverage of riots

Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi

An Editors Guild of India's fact-finding mission to Gujarat has indicted Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar, two leading Gujarati dailies, for 'provocative and irresponsible' coverage of the Godhra incident and the subsequent riots in the state. The Guild has asked for a judicial inquiry against them.

The Guild's report says, 'The mischievous role of certain Gujarati newspapers cannot be glossed over. Some of them have been named for irresponsible and unethical journalism in the past but have regrettably learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Wilful incitement to offence, propagation of hate and fuelling disorder are criminal offences. We accordingly suggest that a high judicial officer be appointed by the government to examine the writings of those sections of the media that are prima facie in flagrant violation of the law and recommend what action, if any, should be taken against them.'

A three-member team consisting of Dileep Padgaonkar, Executive Managing Editor, The Times of India, Aakar Patel, Editor, Mid-Day, Mumbai, and B G Verghese, former editor of The Hindustan Times, visited Gujarat between March 31 and April 6, 2002. It visited Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Anand, Godhra and Vadodara and met Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others.

The 254-page report, Rights and Wrongs: Ordeal by Fire in the Killing Fields of Gujarat, goes on to say, 'The role of sections of the Gujarati media, especially Gujarat Samachar and more notably Sandesh, was provocative, irresponsible and blatantly violative of all accepted norms of media ethics. This cannot be lightly passed over.'

Verghese, who once served as information adviser to then prime minister Indira Gandhi, told rediff.com, "I was a member of the committee which looked into the media's role in the anti-reservation riots in Gujarat. That time too we had indicted these two newspapers. It is sad to know that there is no change in their attitude."

"I think if secularism became a selling proposition these newspapers would become secular. I feel their prime interest is commercial," added Padgaonkar.

The editors tried to understand Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar's point of view. The report describes at length their meeting with Sandesh Chairman and Managing Director Falgun Patel.

The editors report, 'Mr Falgun Patel was down to earth in his perception of the Gujarat media scene. Running a newspaper is big business and Gujarat essentially has two newspapers, Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar, both bitter rivals. Gujarat Samachar has a circulation of around 8.10 lakhs and Sandesh about 7.05 lakhs. But because of its pro-Hindu stand, Sandesh's circulation increased by 150,000 copies since the riots began. This newspaper competition was "not healthy" and it was left to each newspaper to contradict inaccuracies in the other. There was "no ethics or principles". Gujarat Samachar, he [Falgun Patel] alleged, had a pro-Jain bias. "Hindu protection is my duty." '

The report quotes Falgun Patel further: 'The English media, Patel said, had sided "out and out" with the minority community and the Gujarati papers were, by and large, pro-Hindu. He blamed the English media for throwing all restraint to the wind by citing the religious affiliation of various groups. Others therefore followed suit.'

Falgun Patel, at his meeting with the editors, described the Godhra incident as "unforgettable" and the reaction to it as justified. "Can a 20 per cent minority take the majority for a ride? There has to be a limit."

Falgun Patel was asked about the Sandesh report which alleged that the breasts of two Hindu women had been chopped off by the Godhra killers. The Sandesh CMD told the Editors Guild team that the information had come from the DSP Panchmahals district. The report was contradicted promptly and the contradiction appeared in Gujarat Samachar.

The report says, 'This, we were told, was a fallout of "competition" between the two rival papers. Sandesh's own policy was "not to carry corrections and clarifications".'

"We feel corrections and clarifications are basic tenets of journalism. The best newspapers give it. How can you deny it? Our report brings to light that if you give correct information and truth, people will accept it because man is a thinking animal," said Mammen Mathew, president of the Editors Guild of India.

The team also received complaints against the biases of the English press. But the report mentions, 'Overall, our finding is that the prompt and extensive portrayal by sections of the local press and national media of the untold horrors visited on innocent people in the wake of the Godhra carnage was a saving grace.'

It adds, 'There were certain inadequacies and lapses in general media coverage that we shall address; but the charge that the media was a major aggravating or even a causative factor in the situation is specious and self-serving and must be dismissed.'

Gujarat, the editors noted, was the first large-scale "television and cable riot" covered in real time. 'This poses delicate issues and difficult choices that merit discussion. Finally, the role of digital communications, the mobile phone, SMS (short messaging service), email, Web sites, autonomous computer generated handbills and posters, and the digital camera, was pervasive, insidious and oftentimes dubious, being prone to misuse,' the editors noted.

Rioters and middle-class looters were directed by mobile phone. SMS messages were reportedly sent to some people warning them that milk supplies had been poisoned. Others received telephone calls about a threatened rocket attack, setting off alarm and panic. Chain messages were sent by email.

The report concluded that 'our broad conclusion is that the national media and sections of the Gujarati media, barring some notable offenders, played an exemplary role in their coverage of Gujarat, despite certain lapses, many of them inadvertent or minor. There were, however, some notable offenders, especially Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar and certain local cable channels. Technology has introduced a new learning curve and there are lessons to be learnt, internalised and developed into codes of best practice. But the notion that the media should shy away from telling the country how it really is must be firmly rejected.'

Finally, the report hoped that 'all is not lost. The media will and must continue to turn the searchlight on Gujarat. But there is that underlying story waiting to be probed and told if Gujarat and India are not to burn again.'

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