by AW Siddiqui
I have a habit of forwarding interesting news from a news portal. I believe in most of the news content on that portal because it's independent and not-for-profit, and predominantly run by the volunteers.
I had forwarded some of the news and humour items to one of my acquaintances. Couple of days ago, he sent a message asking me to stop sending him ‘fake news’. I asked him which particular news item he thought was fake. He did not respond. A day later, I messaged him again, and there was no response.
There are two things I know to be true in this instance. 1) My acquaintance is a huge supporter of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), the party that is currently ruling India, and 2) most of the news that appear on that news portal are sourced from the government news agencies, and the probability of fake news appearing in such agencies’ portal is very low. Based on my own observation, most of the democratic governments don’t use their own agencies for fake news – they use commercial media to do that, and reward them handsomely through government contracts.
So why my acquaintance thinks its fake news. Does it has something to do with being a supporter of BJP, a party that has been blamed by the Indian and Western media of creating, spreading and feeding upon the fake news, to polarise the voters to improve its election performance? Is it that any news which puts BJP in bad light is 'fake' for him? Is his mind programmed to a level that it is limited to accept only positives about a political party, and declare anything critical to be fake?
Fake news can mean many things – a mistake, intentional misleading, twisting a news story, or fabricating a complete lie. Though a mistake can be seen as a human err, a misleading, twisting, or fabricating news is not just irresponsible, it could lead to serious social consequences.
A research, commissioned by the BBC World Service, may shed some light on the behaviour of my acquaintance. (1)
BBC research revealed that fake news is fast spreading in India owing to a "rising tide of nationalism" where right-wing networks are much more organised than on the left, pushing "nationalistic fake stories" further. The research found that in India, "facts were less important to some than the emotional desire to bolster national identity".
"There was also an overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," the findings showed.
“distrust of mainstream news outlets pushed people to spread information from alternative sources, without attempting to verify it, in the belief that they were helping to spread the real story. People were also overly confident in their ability to spot fake news," the researchers noted.
"Poor standards of global media literacy, and the ease with which malicious content can spread unchecked on digital platforms mean there's never been a greater need for trustworthy news providers to take proactive steps," Jamie Angus, Director of the BBC World Service Group, said in a statement.
The Diplomat published an article, “How Fake News Spreads in India” on April 09, 2018. The article was about a circular by India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B). (2)
On April 2, India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) woke up to the “increasing instances of fake news in electronic and print media” in the country, and released a circular announcing amendments to guidelines that the Press Information Bureau (PIB) follows while granting accreditation to journalists.
In less than a day’s time, the circular was withdrawn at the direction of Narendra Modi’s Prime Minister’s Office.
“During the 15 hours between the circular’s issuance and its withdrawal, the discussion around fake news in India kick-started to a frenzy… For a government that has its own legacy of fake news, the circular fired on all the wrong cylinders”, reported The Diplomat.
While the Indian Constitution guarantees its citizens the fundamental right to speech and expression (Article 19), it does not explicitly provide for the freedom of the press, unlike in mature democracies of the world, where press freedom is a constitutionally protected right. The First and Fourth Amendments in the United States, for example, protect the rights of journalists to write, probe, criticize, debate, and contest freely the head of the state.
“Fake news is, in effect, the offspring of an unholy marriage between propaganda and advertising money.” reported The Diplomat.
In their article, The Diplomat sighted an incidence. “An editor of the news website Postcard News was... arrested in the south Indian city of Bengaluru for promoting hatred between religious groups by carrying the picture of a monk injured in an accident, and passing it off as the result of an attack by a Muslim youth. The editor, interestingly, is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter, even though Postcard News has been repeatedly called out as a hoax-generating portal, frequently used by BJP ministers and supporters to strike up communal tensions.”
According to The Diplomat, the bigger danger is when, for example, fake news wrongly attributes statements calling for Azaadi (freedom) for Kashmir to someone like Arundhati Roy. Critics of the government thus often find themselves becoming targets for trolls, fake news, and misguided social media outrage.
What has gone wrong with Indian media?
DW, a German news agency, ran a report on 7 September 2018. The report analysed the fast deteriorating quality of the Indian main stream media, which use to be seen as highly independent a few years ago.
On the World Press Freedom Index of May 2017, India ranked 136th on a list of 180 countries. India was placed even lower than the conflict-struck Palestine. According to the report, journalists in the subcontinent were less free than 135 other countries because of the rising nationalism under the National Democratic Alliance government, and the fear of “online smear campaigns” launched by radical nationalists, who also turn out, in many instances, to be internet trolls.
In the past few years, the media industry in India has expanded tremendously. But at the same time, corporate and political influences on journalists have also increased.
The resignations of two prominent journalists in July 2018 from ABP news channel sparked a debate on media censorship in India. Those who left the channel included the former editor-in-chief, Milind Khandekar, and Punya Prasoon Bajpai, who hosted the popular show "Master Stroke."
The channel had irked India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by running a story about a villager in the central state of Chhattisgarh who claimed that she was told by a government official to lie to media that she had benefitted from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rural schemes.
In another incident, ABP's news anchor Abhisar Sharma was taken off air for over a fortnight after he reportedly defied instructions from the management that he must not criticize PM Modi's policies.
Indian journalists say media outlets have never been under more pressure than today.
"The government does not directly exert pressure on journalists; it puts pressure on media owners who usually concede. Self-censorship has gone up tremendously since the BJP government came to power (in 2014). What happened at ABP News is just one example of this censorship," Sevanti Ninan, a New Delhi-based journalist, told DW.
Sociologist Sanjay Srivastava says the trend is "disturbing."
"Large media organizations are being owned and controlled by political and business conglomerates that are using channels and newspapers to undermine their opponents," Srivastava told DW.
Independent Indian journalists find it increasingly difficult to report freely in the current political environment where "ultra-nationalism" has dominated the media landscape.
Apart from incidents where the pressure on journalists is implicit, there are also cases in which reporters are systematically harassed by political workers and social media trolls.
"Corporate and political influences have overwhelmed media organizations. Only a few journalists tend to take an independent line," Abhishek Singhvi, a spokesperson for the opposition Congress party, wrote in a recent column.
Bigger but not better
India once prided itself on a vibrant and diverse press, but analysts say it has taken a completely opposite direction in the past few years.
The Indian media industry has massively expanded. There are now more than 100,000 registered newspapers and magazines as well as over 400 news channels in various languages. Some 150 news channels are awaiting clearance from the government.
"The corporate sector relies on government funding. Its nexus with political parties and government officials have thus increased manifold. But in the process, the newsrooms have lost their credibility and independence," Gurpreet Singh, a columnist, told DW.
Analysts say the situation is likely to get worse because the BJP government needs "favorable media coverage" ahead of next year's general elections.
Bloomberg of USA published an article titled “Head of India’s Ruling Party Emboldens Volunteers Spreading Fake News” on September 28, 2018.
The article sighted the powerful president of India’s ruling party BJP who has encouraged his organization’s social media volunteers to spread viral messages supporting the government ahead of next year’s election, and even seemed to praise fake news that worked in their favour.
"We are capable of delivering any message we want to the public, whether sweet or sour, true or fake," said Amit Shah, the head of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, at a rally for social media volunteers in the Indian state of Rajasthan on Sept. 22.
In Shah’s comments, which were posted on the BJP’s YouTube channel and reported by India’s The Wire, he spoke approvingly of one "smart" social media volunteer who spread a fake rumour over WhatsApp during a state election in 2017.
Shah said the BJP social media team had helped spread a volunteer’s false message that -- the state’s then chief minister -- had slapped his politician father in the face. The fake message went viral.
"One should not do such things, but in a way he created a certain perception," Shah told the crowd. "This is something worth doing, but don’t do it," he added, prompting the audience to burst into laughter. "Do you understand what I am saying? This is something worth doing, but don’t do it!"
G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, a spokesman for the BJP, referred questions about Shah’s comments to the party’s head of information technology, Amit Malviya, who declined to comment. A prime minister’s office spokesman did not respond to calls or texts seeking comment.
To eliminate the evil of fake news by the Indian main stream media, to which some have called ‘’Lushkar-e-Media”, the policymakers have to draw up legislation which clamps down on the fake news that is funded by the government itself and its affiliates for electoral currency. In a democracy of the size of India, where the media plays the role of the proverbial fourth pillar, its fearless independence is crucial to keep the checks and balances that the constitution has devised, and need to be maintained.
References:
1. Fake News Spreading In India Due To "Rising Tide Of Nationalism": Report, November 12, 2018; Report, published on NDTV news site.
2. This week, India had a Trumpian moment”; April 3, 2018; The Diplomat
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