Author: Amit Sengupta
Publication: Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies
Date: November 2, 2007
URL: http://www.ipcs.org/whatsNewArticle1.jsp?action=showView&kValue=2425&status=article&mod=b
Northeast India is a rich abode of natural
beauty and bounty encompassing the seven sister states of Assam, Arunachal
Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and the adjacent hilly
state of Sikkim. But it is a strange fact that such a vast territory of the
country remains poorly represented in the national consciousness. Much blame
of course rests with the national media which brings out news from the region
for the consumption of its national readers and viewers.
There is a skewed presentation of the news
and developments from the region. The national media broadly includes national
dailies - The Hindu, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Asian Age, The
Statesman and broadcasting media - NDTV, Times Now, Aaj Tak, Sahara Samay,
Star News and CNN-IBN. Incidentally, the projection of news and current affairs
from the region to the national platform impacts the psyche of the viewers
and readers. Unfortunately, this is where the national media falters.
The national media is concerned or rather
obsessed with news of violence and insurgency which emanates from this region.
Let's take a look at the daily staple of the media - ULFA, NSCN, KLO, flood,
and bomb blasts. There is only news of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA)
and floods in Assam; the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland and talks
between the two warring factions of NSCN (Issac-Muivah) and NSCN (Khaplang)
consumes news from Nagaland; bandhs from Manipur, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation's
(KLO) ambushes on the security forces. Our national media is content within
these confines of their definition of news as far as Northeast India is concerned.
The media seems to be have a myopic vision
with an explicit shyness to learn outside this definition. Most of the dailies
with multi-editions and news channels shockingly have only one journalist
to cover the entire northeast region. Some, like NDTV, have two journalists
while the rest are content with their single man/woman army left to cover
the vast territory. The dailies like The Times of India, Hindustan Times have
a couple of journalists. The Times of India and The Telegraph have their own
editions at Guwahati. Hindustan Times also launched its edition in Guwahati
a year ago which it had to wind up later. The Statesman and the The Echo of
India are the only two dailies in India which have a dedicated northeast page
in their editions. The audio-visual media does not have a dedicated northeast
edition in their busy 24x7 ceaseless broadcasting frenzy. The Statesman brings
out its northeast page every Monday, while The Echo of India carries the northeast
page every day on page two along with Sikkim.
The Statesman provides a platform to anaylze
the news and current affairs of the region with guest columns written by some
freelance journalist or retired bureaucrat. Naturally, security and the strategic
importance of the region hold prime importance in these pages. The Echo of
India tries to portray the true picture of the region giving equal emphasis
to positive developments of the region. However, it also falls prey to the
usual media biases and tends to go overboard with splashes of insurgency-related
news (ULFA's bomb blasts seems to be a staple diet for the media). The recently
concluded international meet at Bangkok by the Ministry of Northeast Region
(DONER) to leverage the investment potential of the seven sisters was one
such rare occasion which received a liberal coverage in the print media. In
the broadcast media though, the attention to it was not quite the same. There
were some positive developments like starting a dedicated airline for the
Northeast, new improved roads and so on which came out from the investment
summit, all of which were given some space in the dailies.
In another rare exception, the media went
'berserk' during the Indian Idol contest at a private channel. The reason
- Amit Paul who hails from Shillong was one of the two finalists. In the true
media tradition, newsprint spoke liberally about the singing sensation from
Meghalaya. This was one such rare exception which garnered attention in the
national consciousness about a state which is otherwise only known for being
home to places receiving the highest rainfall on earth.
The media hardly gives space to happenings
from Arunachal Pradesh, or even Mizoram. Of course it feels good when a news
weekly like Tehelka thinks of conducting the Northeast Summit to discuss policy
matters of the region. While the national media itself has quite a few luminaries
who belong to the region it can definitely do more to shed its stubbornness
and biased attitude in the portrayal of the region.
(Amit Sengupta, Subeditor, The Echo of India,
Kolkata, e-mail: amitv6@gmail.com)
