It is the prerogative of the Church to guide its flock in matters
spiritual and political and we take no issue with it.
Democracy and governance are important issues and the
Church would not be doing its duty if it did not enjoin the
faithful to actively participate in the democratic process
and even proffer guidance on voting preferences. The Church
does not name which political party to support but calls on
the faithful to weigh the pros and cons, scrutinise the candidates,
examine the policies of political parties and drops hints
about the direction in which to proceed. As mentioned earlier,
we take no issue with this process.
To this exertion, the Church through the Council for Social
Justice and Peace, issued guidelines and the most disturbing of
these guidelines is the one that totally undermines the media
and diminishes its role in democracy. The passage in question
reads, “The print and electronic media which is considered
the fourth pillar of a democracy and is ethically required to
maintain autonomy and report factual
and unbiased news to the public,
is now increasingly seen to be
the mouthpiece of the government
and corporates and driven by competition.
Citizens therefore need to
access other sources of alternative
and reliable political information
before coming to conclusions on
any issue and before making political decisions or choices.”
In one stroke, the Church has painted the entire media (television
and newspapers) with a black brush. In six lines of
text, lifetimes of commitment to the profession of journalism
by many, has been written off as dubious, irresponsible and
unreliable. And citizens have been advised to rely on alternate
sources. And what or who are these sources? Facebook, which
was recently exposed for streaming fake news? Whatsapp,
where messages are posted and reposted without scrutiny?
The neighbour? The grocer? The fishmonger? The barber?
Where can these alternate sources be found? The Church after
striking down an entire profession should have at least taken
the trouble to name a few alternate ones.
The media is integral to democracy and any attempt to take
it out of the equation is an attack on democracy itself. Thomas
Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States of
America said: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should
have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without
a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer
the latter.”
We are not paragons of virtue. We have black sheep as well.
We commit errors and sometimes overplay the news, but taken
as a whole the media in India and the world is quite reliable
because we have been trained to scrutinise every story with
the lens of truth. The processes of checking and re-checking
have been put in place over decades, if not centuries. By suggesting
that people should discard newspapers or media the
Church has done the media and democracy a great disservice
and is indirectly advocating an election based on misinformation
and fake news. In this regard we stand with democracy, a
free press and the right to differ and dissent.
