Rina Mukherji
Kolkata
April 2006

Photo: Abul Kassem, DRIK

The recent NWMI meet in Kolkata brought into focus the problems and prospects of closer cooperation between mediapersons in South Asia as guests Rehana Hakim, editor, Newsline, Pakistan, Sharmini Boyle, chief editor, Young Asia (YA) TV, Sri Lanka, Sumi Khan, senior correspondent, Daily Shomokal, Bangladesh, Kalpana Sharma, deputy editor, The Hindu, India and writer-publisher Urvashi Butalia, India examined the salient features of the media's role in conflict situations in this part of the world.

Joshy Joseph's film, "A Day In the Life of a Hangman" set the tone for the meet with a screening followed by lunch at the Max Mueller Bhavan premises on 3 February. A controversial film that questioned the role of the press, it had drawn official ire because of its stand on capital punishment. It was just the right film for a journalists' meet, and had the more than 50-odd participants from Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Orissa and the northeast get down to some introspection even as they braced themselves for an interactive session with the producers on the pros and cons of choosing such a subject.

Photo: Abul Kassem, DRIK

Chairing the panel discussion on "Media and Conflict: Will the media in South Asia give peace a chance?", Kalpana Sharma triggered the debate by citing the media's tendency to sensationalise and ride the crest of a war hysteria, gauging the public mindset in times of conflict, while Rehana Hakim compared and contrasted the respective stances taken by the media on both sides of the fence as regards the Indo-Pak conflict.

In Rehana's opinion, the Indian media was particularly hawkish and always took a stand in keeping with the official Indian line, unlike the Pakistani media which was far more objective. The trend had particularly increased in recent years, with the Pakistani army, notwithstanding President Musharraf being in power, ceasing to be the sacred cow as in the past.

Sharmini Boyle and Sumi Khan examined the physical problems and vulnerability faced by journalists when reporting from the war zone, and stressed on a pan-South Asian approach that went beyond reporting on specific conflicts alone. In a country where the media was sharply divided along ethnic lines, and no Sri Lankan ever ran a Tamil newspaper or vice-versa, the stance taken by YA TV had set an agenda that directed focus on issues like the economic compulsions women face in a war zone. Sharmini made a plea for such reporting as the first step to bringing the people of the region together. Hailing from a country that had been witnessing the murder and maiming of several investigative journalists over the years, Sumi told the gathering of the terrifying conditions in which journalists operated to expose the crime mafia and corrupt officials in Bangladesh. She made a fervent plea for a cooperative effort by South Asian journalists to report on issues of common concern such as trafficking, drug pushing and corruption.

Endorsing Sumi's suggestions, Rehana felt the time was just right to fill in the information gap on each other's country, with particular reference to the Indo-Pak media scene. She said, "While Indian film magazines are all the rage, not a single news or general interest magazine from India is available in Pakistan." Furthermore, the respective governments had set severe limits on the number of mediapersons who could be present at any point of time, thereby limiting the news flow from one country to the other. This, she felt, had only contributed to mistrust and hostility over the years.

Urvashi Butalia felt the lack of women reporting from the front lines was partly responsible for the acrimony and hardening of attitudes. She cited the problem of the half-widows of Kashmir, whose stories had remained untold so far, since peace initiatives had entirely been handled by men. She called on mediapersons to handle the agenda individually, just so responsible reporting could be seen. "When only extremes are reported, no middle ground can result," she said.

Linda Chhakchuak recalled how rumours fanned by the media in the northeast had sparked off internecine conflict; and felt that media in a war zone was generally prone to "declaring war on the other group".

There were several opinions, arguments and counter-arguments on whether or not women would or would not make a difference in terms of sensitivity in a conflict situation. While Urvashi took a pro-women stand, Rehana felt "media does reflect society. Women may have a defining persona — but not everybody is more sensitive." She cited the case of the then Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who had reacted very sharply to a Newsline report on Sindhi-Mohajir riots and had all Pakistan International advertisements withdrawn forthwith.

Elaborating on the issue of sensitivity, Urvashi recalled how she was harangued by an Indian mediaperson for her views in connection with reports of the abduction and conversion of Hindu women in Pakistan, given the fact that she had recently authored a book on the experiences of women during the Indo-Pak partition that had been effected half a century ago.

"It is difficult to remain thoroughly objective when a war victim with deeply entrenched scars has to professionally report on a war," she opined, recalling an instance of how difficult it was for a Palestinian mediaperson to come face-to-face with a person she had known to have been responsible for the Chatilla -Sabra massacre in which her own family had been affected.

However, she believed that women in a war zone could bring hitherto neglected issues to the fore — the way a Bosnian woman had done when writing on rape as a weapon of war in the recent past.

After a sumptuous dinner at the Tolly Club — one of Kolkata's few surviving Raj relics — it was time for the internal NWMI sessions on the two following days at Jadavpur University.

Photo: Abul Kassem, DRIK

The panel discussion spilt over to the following day with the guests interacting with participants to work out the possibility of a working arrangement wherein collaborative reporting on issues of common concern could be done. Rehana particularly suggested the NWMI helping her out with details on specialised journalists to write for Newsline and other South Asian magazines on developmental and other issues.

There was also talk on expanding the network to neighbouring countries to work as a lobbying body and pressure group that could take up the cause of working journalists there. However, this was deemed unworkable given the fact that none of these countries had national-level networks like the NWMI.

The discussion veered on to individual opinions on being part of a pan-Indian body like the NWMI. The discussion veered on to individual opinions on being part of a pan-Indian body like the NWMI. Vasanthi Hariprakash, Pratibha Nandakumar and Rupa Chinai felt happy being part of a larger group where one could share information and get to know like-minded professionals, Soumi Das recalled how she had got to know of the NFI fellowship through the NWMI network and ultimately won. Yet interestingly, each of the regional chapters complained of the unwillingness of most mediawomen to become a member of the network, possibly because they viewed it as some kind of trade union.

The afternoon session introduced the participants to a different era and another face of journalism in the person of Vidya Munshi, arguably the first woman journalist who lived and worked from Kolkata and set the tone for what later came to be termed as investigative journalism.

Felicitated by Nilosree Biswas, the youngest member of the Bengal chapter, Vidyadi (as Vidya Munshi is fondly called) gave the participants a peek into another era when professional journalism was yet to come into its own, and yet, "there were lots of causes to fight for". One learnt of how she landed up in Europe in the intra-war years, and familiarised herself with the dialectics of communism and the left movement by reading literature that was taboo in India during the British Raj. It was a different feeling altogether to learn of how a lone woman in the profession could achieve scoop after investigative scoop for her publication, Blitz, during the '60s and '70s and ultimately came to be regarded as a guiding beacon by youths who entered the rough and tumble of journalism in subsequent years. In answer to questions on being given or denied the opportunity to pursue hard news as a woman, Vidyadi made it clear, "one has to create a space for oneself", although, of course, she also mentioned the fact that she was the only person covering the eastern region for her publication.

Photo: Abul Kassem, DRIK

The presentations by the regional chapters exposed the audience to the nitty-gritties of the media profession across the length and breadth of the country. The Bengal chapter's findings revealed that although the number of women in journalism had increased several-fold since Vidyadi's time, most women were confined to the desk or features sections. Only 1/3rd of the total number of women journalists were reporters. Of the media houses, only Aajkal, Tara Bangla, and the Times of India had women in decision-making positions. But then, not all women were found to be in this position owing to their professional merit or a highly-sensitised management, as in Aajkal. Instead, many were found to be holding high positions courtesy their relationship to the top management in the media company. There was another pertinent finding: many women were quite happy with the state of things, and not too willing to slog it out on night shifts or hard news reporting. This was where an image change had to be worked towards, felt presenter Ananya Chatterjee of the Bengal chapter.

One learnt from Chhaya Bhuiyan of how disturbances in the northeast and the paucity of jobs has taken a big toll in opportunities for women in the region. Media houses hardly ever want women, and if they do, the tenure is insecure. Long years of hard work go unnoticed, and the women continue to be branded contributors, with no perks or benefits coming their way.

K Satyavati of the Hyderabad network spoke of how politically polarised the Andhra press was, and how the polarities showed in every bit of reporting that originated from the region. The participants came face-to-face with a group of rural reporters from the backward Rayalaseema region in Chittoor district, who have been working hard to create a space for themselves and bring about much-needed change through their publication, Navodayam Patrika.

Manjula and Mallika from Navodayam Patrika talked about how their lives were transformed when a woman's empowerment programme envisaged to bring in a change through dissemination of information. The indefatigable team of 6 women with little formal education who spend 20 days in a month gathering news, planning, and cartooning to eventually publish their magazine was most inspiring. Navodayam (New Dawn) was indeed a new dawn in the lives of people like Mallika and Manjula who had risen from a drab existence to become career women of substance. It was heartening to know that Mallika who had been married off at 15, campaigned extensively against child marriage and other ills that were commonplace in their region when she came of age.

The participants also got a taste of womanpower when they heard of how a raped schoolgirl had ultimately got back to school, while justice caught up with the perpetrator of the crime, courtesy Navodayam Patrika. One also felt vindicated on hearing how Manjula and Mallika were now being encouraged by the very families who had opposed them when they were first working on bringing out a magazine.

The Navodayam team spoke of how the magazine was packaged to disseminate information on AIDS, campaign against child labour, talk of interesting traditions that were dying out, highlight positive stories of women achievers, and poke fun at men who called the shots and dominated their women. They also spoke of how they worked on developing video footage on problems they wished to address from time to time.

The entire exercise was a heartwarming experience that bridged the rural-urban divide and enlightened the audience on how communication can contribute to development in the real sense.

One also learnt of the various programmes that had been arranged by the Mumbai chapter over the past year, including the screening of some interesting documentaries, a session with Iftikhar Geelani and the use of the Official Secrets Act, and an exhibition on the work of photojournalists on Kashmir.

The work of the Pune group proved to have transcended beyond mere media-related considerations. Sandhya Taksale of the Pune chapter told the audience about how a survey conducted by the chapter on eve-teasing of girls and working women in public buses had been followed up with an interactive session with the authorities to ultimately pressurise them into reserving women's seats in public transport.

Pratibha Nandakumar from the Bangalore chapter talked about the ground realities of the Karnataka media scene, and how it was controlled by Tamil and Andhraite media barons.

The final day began with a stress-busting yoga session aimed at educating participants on how to use simple exercises while at work to unwind and relax. The short session left the group rejuvenated enough to appreciate and join in the subsequent animated discussions that followed in the day.

Academician Dr Janaki Nair's incisive talk on gender as a political tool saw the issue shorn of all rhetoric and awakened the audience to the politics of gender. Delving into how a gender perspective had been woven into administrative policies to "domesticate the threat of feminism", she recounted the manner in which tapping women and organising them into self-help groups over the past decade had been used by the state to address the problems of poverty, empowerment and livelihood generation. Yet, all through, ample safeguards were taken so that the social order remained untampered, lest there arise intractable problems that could not be contended with. Gender budgeting today, she pointed out, had only been the culmination of a trend that had been years in the making.

The session also had Ammu Joseph recounting how ignorance had given way to understanding the issues at large where gender was concerned. She called on reporters to look at problems they report on from a gender perspective, and bring in hitherto largely-ignored questions to the fore.

The meet concluded with a short talk on the woes of freelancers by Anju Munshi, and another by Rina Mukherji on the age bar on fellowships that prevents married women with their concomitant burdens of child-bearing and child-rearing from taking advantage of them. Although some organisations had recently raised the age limit, most targeted those below 35 years of age. While Shoma informed the gathering of government-administered fellowships that had no age bar at all, participants backed Rina's suggestion of the network being used to lobby for a more level-playing field for women.

Anju recounted how chasing payments had often got her to lose track of the amount she spent on outstation phone calls, until she realised that her outgoing calls had far surpassed her dues from the publication concerned. Kill fee had never been heard of, and broaching it was something one could be killed for, she quipped. The issue evinced a lot of interest, with several participants joining in.

Annam narrated how once she and several freelancers had jointly protested and compelled a defaulting publication to pay. Deepa told the group how recommendations never came the way of freelancers, in spite of all that they contributed to publications. In keeping with suggestions, it was decided to consider using NWMI as a pressure group to blacklist defaulting organisations and take up the non-payment of freelancers to ensure them a better deal.

Anjali Mathur talked at length of the problems in sustaining the NWMI website, and the lack of enough finances or physical support in the matter. However, in view of the general consensus, it was decided to keep the website going with many members offering to help in various ways.

The adda (informal discussion) on media and censorship generated a good deal of heat and shed some light on the issue with Shyamashree Basu, Nabaneeta Deb Sen and Vasudha Joshi speaking on censorship in fine arts, literature and films. While Nabaneeta Deb Sen spoke of how even the publication of innocuous love letters in a collection had invited flak for her group, Shyamashree Basu recalled how MF Hussain's depiction of a nude Saraswati had kicked up a row from the right-wing moral police. Vasudha Joshi went back in time to elaborate how her footage on a massacre in the northeast had been canned by the authorities, compelling her to ultimately set up her own outfit to produce documentaries.

The personal experiences of the ladies, right-wing politics, and the present turmoil following the publication of cartoons deemed politically incorrect engendered a wide range of reactions wherein it was concluded that self-censorship always needed to be exercised, come what may, although the state was generally found to exercise its prerogative only when its policies were in question.

More information on the fourth NWMI national meet

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