Media and himalaya: A workshop in Kathmandu
Journalists from across the Himalayan region convened at the Hotel Summit in Patan on 22 and 23 June to examine "Media and the Himalaya". The 17 participants arrived from as far afield as Imphal and Islamabad to evaluate the mainstream press' coverage of Himalayan trends and issues.
To facilitate what turned out to be two days of intense discussions, the Himalaya was divided into political regions, each characterised by some homogeneity. The Indian Northeast formed one part, Bhutan another, Sikkim and Darjeeling the third, and Nepal, Uttarakhand, Himachal and North Pakistan completed the chain, while Tibet provided the counterweight to the north.
Although the agenda was specifically geared towards media coverage of regional events, there was a natural tendency among all participants to delve into the issues during the presentations and subsequent discussions. Digression often stemmed from the fact that the journalists themselves were not fully aware of underlying issues in regions other than their own. This fact itself underscored the consensus that the Himalayan zone is getting short shrift from the mainstream media—generally understood to mean the Delhi press by virtue of Delhi's geo-political importance vis-a-vis the region.
The Indian national press was perceived to be over-involved in sensational reporting and neglectful of hill issues. It was pointed out that while coverage about the former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen's 'idiotic' utterances or the Indian Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan's every self-serving pronouncement regularly secured front-page prominence, the plight of environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna, who at that very moment was observing a protest fast against the Tehri dam project, was virtually ignored. This was similar to the Indian press's cursory notice of the 1993 floods that wreaked havoc in Nepal, and of the innumerable other Himalayan news events, trends and issues that were, as a matter of course, ignored.
The hills make headlines only in times of political crisis or when law-and-order situations go out of hand. In a region shimmeringly volatile throughout, such event-based reporting completely overshadowed other 'stories', was the general view, and those present writing for Indian national newspapers were also part of this consensus.
On the flip-side, it was felt that this indignation directed at the plains media, righteous though it may sound from a hill perspective, might only be aggrieved posturing—since the mainstream media usually treats staid news from any quarter, whether the mountains or the plains, perfunctorily. In that sense, Chattisgarh or Jharkhand received the same treatment as did GorkhaIand or Uttarakhand. It did not really matter, was the cautioning note by Mukul Sharma of the Navbharat Times, among others, that the subject area was in the Deccan, the Ganga plain or the Himalaya.
Problem with Facts
While mainstream media's reporting on the Himalaya illustrates general indifference, the little reporting that is done is generally replete with factual errors. This is particularly true for areas where secessionist movements or violent agitations occur, with the authorities handing out well-chosen cues to journalists to disseminate select news.
Yambem Lawa, correspondent for the Statesman in Imphal, and secretary of the Manipur Working Journalists' Association, spoke of how Indian intelligence agencies feed journalists with information to serve their own interests. This results in a backlash against the journalists from insurgency groups.
Lawa recounted an incident near Kohima, Nagaland, where 400 soldiers were moving in a convoy of lorries. Confusion arose when one lorry burst a tyre. Mistaking the sharp report for a gunshot, the jittery soldiers opened fire, which was returned by 200-odd sentries posted in the area. This 'friendly fire' resulted in several deaths which the Deputy Commissioner of the area stated was the result of an 'exchange' with insurgents. The United News of India ( UNI) and the Press Trust of India (PTO) carried this version, but soon had to retract their bulletins under pressure from the insurgents. Journalists suffer tremendous tension in the Indian Northeast, said Lawa, as they are pulled in different directions by the state government, the Army, and the insurgents.
Harka Bahadur Chhettri, editor of Kalimpong-based Pratibad, cited the example of the widely-publicised "arms surrender" in Darjeeling at the end of the GNLF movement in 1988, which he said was a farce. "Water-pipe guns and utility pole bazookas" were among the 'weapons' surrendered to make the event appear significant, and the press was blissfully unaware of the deception.
In a lighter vein, Anmole Prasad, lawyer and writer from Kalimpong, recalled that the only part of the Kurseong AIR news bulletins that the hill people believed during the period of the Gorkhaland agitation was the beginning, which went, "This is All India Radio…"
Manisha Aryal of Himal mentioned how during the anti-alcohol movement in Uttarakhand, which went under the slogan "Nasha nahi, rojgar do" (give us work, not alcohol), journalists who came from the plains provided distorted coverage because each of them used separate groups as informants—government employees, students, and women. This led to the movement being seen to be fragmented and directionless. This kind of unbalanced coverage by journalists all too ready to go back to New Delhi after collecting a few quotes overnight from the nearest available source also had the effect of dividing the movement itself, she said. Given the clout of plains media in the hills, there was resentment against groups which received selective prominence.
Incorrect reporting often was due to lack of initiative on the part of journalists, said Ashwani Sharma, Indian Express correspondent in Shimla. He said that most news of the Himachal countryside originated at the Shimla desks of correspondents, who rarely left the state capital. Laziness and lack of accountability on the part of correspondents were a major problem.
Bedabrata Lahkar, of the Assam Tribune, reminded participants that it was not merely jaundiced reporting or manipulative authorities that resulted in poor coverage of the hills. In the Indian Northeast, problems of adequate coverage had pri¬marily to do with insufficient manpower and logistical shortcomings, including severe communication problems that were unique to the Northeast.
Lahkar said that most Indian national dailies made do with a single correspondent in Guwahati whose responsibility was to cover all seven states. "Even my paper, which is regional and has the highest circulation in the Northeast, has only five reporters, of whom only one is based in another state capital," he said. Regional newspapers often relied on stringers for gathering news, the majority of whom are teachers or lawyers, he added.
Question of Objectivity
Mana Ranjan Josse, consulting editor of People's Review, Kathmandu, and a former editor of the Rising Nepal, raised the issue of bias with gusto. He illustrated his point by citing the coverage of the Southern Bhutan crisis by the Statesman under the one-time editorship of Sunanda K. Datta Ray, whose Calcutta flat was reportedly given him by King Jigme of Bhutan.
The Statesman was on the rack once again with Chhettri quoting two of its editorials of some years back, which many felt proved this paper's "bias" against the Darjeeling hills. On 23 December 1987, the lead editorial had expressed the view that draconian measures by the state to suppress the Khalistan movement in Punjab might provide short-term relief, but would eventually risk alienating the common man. On 7 January 1988, however, the same column urged the administration to come down heavily on the Gorkhaland agitators in the Darjeeling hills. "The double standard from this Calcutta paper became obvious to all at that time," said Chhettri.
Praful Bidwai, columnist for The Times of India and former associate editor of that newspaper, said that most of the journalists who proposed to write on Kashmir were themselves unaware of the conditions under which Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India. "By and large, these press people are reporting from the Bharatiya Janata Party stance that Article 370 of the Indian Constitution be abrogated," without realising that this abrogation would mean the separation of Jammu and Kashmir from India itself. "Patriotism is the bane of a free press," warned Bidwai, providing one of the many quotable comments that emerged from the two-day meeting.
Bidwai was even-handedly critical of the mainstream Pakistani press coverage of Kashmir as well. In an effort to serve the "larger interests" of their respective countries, Indian and Pakistani newspaper reports on Kashmir have become mirror images of each other, he said. Delhi papers referred to 'Pakistan-occupied Kashmir' (P0K), while the Islamabad press reciprocated by writing about 'Indian-held Kashmir' (IHK). "Collusion of the press with their respective governments is most hideous in the case of Kashmir," was Bidwai's view.
Rajiv Lochan Sha, editor of Nainital Times, was firm in his view that the regional vernacular papers (based in the plains of Uttar Pradesh) had sensationalised the Uttarakhand movement and sometimes obscured information, to the detriment of the movement itself. He gave the example of Amar Jwala, a Lucknow newspaper, which has two editions printed from Meerut and Bareilly for Garwhal and Kumaon, respectively. While much of the content was similar in both editions, news about Uttarakhand was parcelled out differently. People in Almora did not know of happenings in Nainital and vice versa, even though the two towns are only 63 kilometres apart by road. While part of the problem was no doubt logistical, it was also true that the publishers, editors and reporters had a 'plains perspective' (be it one of Lucknow, Meerut or Bareilly), which hardly helped in creating empathy for Uttarakhand.
Nepal's press fared the worst on the objectivity chart, said Basanta Thapa, editor of Himal (the Nepali-language quarterly). "The reading public and the newspapers are obsessed with politics. Nepali newspapers are polarised in the extremes of political opinion. By following the turn of events, one can easily predict what line a paper will take." Even though press freedom has levelled the playing field between the state and the fourth estate, said Thapa, journalists in Nepal had yet to take advantage of this freedom to do justice to their calling. Regarding Nepali newspapers' political coverage, he said, "There is no need to read them if your search is for objectivity."
Kanak Mani Dixit of Himal said that even though the Bhutan Government should be properly lambasted for its policy of depopulating its hills of Nepali-speakers, the Nepali newspaper accounts of the crisis had been extremely inadequate and biased. With the crisis in Southern Bhutan coming soon after Nepal's successful transition into a democracy in 1990, the press reports on Bhutan were marked by a holier-than-thou attitude and by lofty calls for 'democracy' and 'human ,rights'. Few papers thought it necessary to delve into the historical, economic and sociological factors leading up to the crisis in Southern Bhutan.
Dixit said that the loss of credibility of the Nepali press as far as Bhutan was concerned had in the end done harm to the refugees themselves and their hopes for an early return to Druk Yul. He added that the Nepali media also had fallen down on the job by all but dropping stories and features on the refugees in the last couple of years, even though their numbers in the UNHCR camps had swelled to over 87,000.
'Foreign Press'
The Himalayan region was recognised as an area of relative underdevelopment, lacking substantial industrial base and consumer demand. Lacking the financial backing of advertisers and large readership, it was understandable that only a few newspapers are published from within the region.
Although more than 600-plus newspapers are registered in Nepal, said Josse, in reality, only a handful could claim the status of 'newspaper'. Indian papers filled the void to such an extent that "Indian media fears of a foreign press invasion in India are a laughing matter for us here in Nepal," said Josse.
K.S. Tomar, Hindustan Times correspondent based in Kathmandu, said Indian newspapers coming into Nepal had to be viewed differently from these papers going to other foreign countries. In Nepal, they are the staple for a large portion of the intelligentsia, whereas in other countries, only the Indian consular staff and correspondents tended to read them. Tomar felt that Indian newspapers did not recognise this reality in their coverage of Nepal. There had, in fact, been an accelerated loss of interest in Indian editorial offices since the India-China entente had begun and the geopolitical role of Nepal diminished.
Ashwani Sharma, of the Hindustan Times, pointed out that Himachal Pradesh had no major publication of its own, although the Himachal Times, edited in Shimla and printed in DehraDun, claimed that status. Generally, the state intelligentsia relied on the Chandigarh and Jullundhur papers and a recent development had been the publication of a Himachal edition of the Hindi daily Tansatta, Himsatta, printed in Chandigarh.
The popularity of newspapers from elsewhere also influences the vernacular press. Tomar, a native of Himachal, was of the view that the "Punjabi press is polluting Himachali literature." Mahesh Uniyal, a Garwhali who writes for the Inter-Press Service (IPS), said the influx of the expatriate press in Uttarakhand was eroding the rich literary traditions of Garhwal. Sha, from Nainital, recalled that the Uttarakhand journal Karmabhumi, at one time was so popular and influential that it used to be presented as gifts at weddings. Such local publications had now died because of the dominance of regional and national newspapers and magazines.
Government Mouthpiece
The fact that newspapers are still being used as propaganda tools by the regional authorities also came under discussion during the meeting. The official press coverage of the participants' meeting with Nepali Prime Minister Manmohan Adhikari on June 22 was seen as an opposite example. This meeting was picked up as headline news by the state-controlled radio, television and print media (the Gorkhapatra and Rising Nepal) the following day. The Prime Minister having just made his controversial call for midterm elections (recently quashed by the Supreme Court), the state media utilised the opportunity provided by the press meeting "with Indian and Pakistani journalists" to carry at length the Prime Minister's views on the political scenario of Nepal.
Also criticised was the Bhutanese newspaper Kuensel, ostensibly an independent corporation but jokingly called the Rising Bhutan by one participant. Referring to the Kuensel stories arid photographs depicting the Bhutanese king 'begging" Lhotsamphas not to leave Bhutan, Sanjoy Hazarika of The New York Times said, "No one buys that picture of a 'humble king' anymore."
Nazir Kamal, a free-lancer from Islamabad, admitted that the Pakistani press toes the government line on relations with India, whether on Kashmir or otherwise. "This is because the press in Pakistan is not used to being free," he said. "At the same time, the press knows that its freedom may be curtailed at any time."
Participants' from Nepal, Pakistan, Darjeeling (with Subhas Ghising's hill council as the governing authority) and the Indian Northeast all agreed that many journalists had got into the journalism profession in order to get close to politicians and to land government contracts or advertisements.
The existence of two large refugee groups in the Himalaya—the Tibetans and the Lhotshampa—had spawned refugee journalism as a means to discuss Tibetan and Bhutanese issues, said Dixit. He found it interesting that two of the best-edited English language journals of the region were brought out by refugees, Bhutan Review and Tibetan Review, both of them monthlies.
Odds and Ends
Besides the specific issues of bias, lack of rigour, disinterest, governmental control, and remoteness, several other topics were discussed at the workshop. Nazir Kamal, journalist from Islamabad, noted that Pakistani newspapers only featured Nepal in relation to India, for example, on whether any new government in Kathmandu was "pro- or anti-India". During the 1989 Indo-Nepal trade and transit dispute, he recalled, there was a spate of reports with an anti-India thrust in the Pakistani press.
It was Hazarika's complaint that the international press had pre-conceived notions about India's human rights record in Kashmir. Many reports were filed by journalists without even fulfilling the most fundamental of journalistic practices—checking with the Indian government, he said.
During the entire Uttarakhand agitation, with demands being made for autonomy from Lucknow and for statehood, there seemed to have been no analysis in the press about the experience of Darjeeling on a similar issue just half a decade previously, stated the gentlemen from Kalimpong. Anmole Prasad also made the point that the Indian national media as a whole had failed to follow up on its coverage of the Gorkhaland agitation by taking a serious look at how the situation had developed following the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. "With the end of the violence, media interest in Darjeeling died completely. If there had been more news about the DGHC experiment, it might have proved instructive to those demanding regional councils in Jharkhand and Ladakh."
Harkha Bahadur Chhettri said that previously no newspaper published from Darjeeling could dare write anything against GNLF leader Subash Ghising, but the situation has now turned around. He put forward the example of articles attacking Ghising's stand on the 'greater Nepal' issue which now regularly appear in the vernacular press. However, the national press did continue to ignore Darjeeling, he said.
Dixit made the point that the Bhutanese probably had the most public relations-minded government in all of South Asia, using every opportunity that was offered to get its views across to and through the press. Thimphu's tactics ranged from outright bribery, to all-expense-paid trips to the charming kingdom that tended to be vacations rather than news-gathering exercises, visa refusals for journalists (either Western and South Asian) perceived to be of the investigative kind, and controlled access to the hinterland for those who were allowed in. The Lhotshampa refugees, as well as the Nepali Government which is being forced to act as their host, were easily being out-manoeuvred by the media-savvy Bhutan-ese, Dixit maintained.
Hazarika agreed with Dixit, stating that the ministers regularly travel to Calcutta, Delhi and even Guwahati to brief the press. Bidwai, for his part, blamed the Indian media for its 'failure' to expose the plight of the nearly 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. "The Indian press had shown an utter lack of respect for the human dimension of this particular refugee problem, which is not known to even exist as far as the Indian newspaper reading public is concerned," he said.
The first-ever gathering of press people from or writing about the Himalayan region, the two-day workshop organised by Himal proved enriching for the participants. As the goal of the meeting was limited to getting together the regional journalists for the first time, there was no conclusion or 'declaration' to emerge from the meeting. This report, which deals perhaps cursorily with all that came up for discussion, will have to suffice for the moment. Perhaps more can be expected two years from now, in the summer of 1997, when all present agreed to meet again.
Support for organising the "Media and Himalaya" workshop was provided by ICIMOD, The Ford Foundation, SNV-Nepal and Inter Press Service.The meeting was coordinated by Manisha Aryal.