Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Irresponsible

This refers to Hasan Suroor’s article “The meaning of news and getting it right” (March 18). While the article related to the British media and raised questions about an overwhelming sense in the U.K. that the media are insensitively sensational, we feel it is time such questions were raised about the Indian media as well. In the last few months, there have been several reports of accidents involving young people where the media appear to be more concerned with sensationalism rather than the veracity of the reporting. One can say this for a fact in the case of the tragic car accident that took place on February 24, 2008 in which Anirudh and Sneha lost their lives. There was no attempt by the media to ascertain the truth before putting the report in the public domain. Although Anirudh and Sneha were sitting in the backseat, some reports said the former was driving. The occupants of the ill-fated car were portrayed as rash, young spendthrifts, and irresponsible drunkards, statements that were made without ascertaining their veracity from family and friends. Not only were the media careless, there was no effort to understand how sensationalism affects those who knew and loved the victims. Such sensational media reporting blinkers the responses of the public to a tragedy. The loss of two young lives and the irreparable loss to the parents and the community of family and friends were thus belittled due to such irresponsible reporting. While one understands the concern of the media to address the larger issue of tragedies that occur due to drunken driving, we would like to question the need to sensationalise such news and generalise and moralise since the dead cannot even challenge the misinformation spread by such reporting.

Geetha B. Nambissan, Poonam Batra, Nargis Panchapakesan, Rama V. Baru, Nalini Juneja, & Vinita Bharghava
New Delhi

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