Stories should originate from the ground. They are not generated in newsrooms. They have to come from ‘ground zero’, the actual place of happening. This is real reporting; the other one is arm-chair journalism. But one has to undergo ‘birth pangs’ to produce such stories. Pope Francis’s World Communication Day message for this year is a clarion call to journalists to return to ‘real journalism’. Its significance is more than evident at a time when media organizations are willing to act like a piper who plays the tune for the one who pays. 

News is all about people; their multi-faceted life; trials and tribulations; achievements and accomplishments; snags and stumbling blocks, crime and corruption and much more. Journalists have to take the pain of going to the people; they have to listen to them, encounter and engage them to get the news. This requires leaving the coziness and comfort of reproducing what others want to be reported. Here is a story about Ramnath Goenka, a fearless entrepreneur and journalist, who launched Indian Express. Once he was told by a Chief Minister that his reporter based in the State was doing a good job. Back in the office, Goenka sacked the journalist. He is reported to have said: “Criticism from the government, and not praise, should be the badge of honour for a journalist.”        

Unfortunately, most of the media in India today, with the exception of a few newspapers and TV channels, are taking a path shown by the government; they prefer to parrot what has been told to them by the government or its agencies. They dish out publicity material unabashedly. They have stopped asking hard questions to the wrong-doers. When they are asked to bend, they are more than happy to crawl. The people-centric stories have been put on the back burner. The huge profits the government makes by hiking fuel prices; sale of profit-making public limited companies; ‘Tughlaqian’ decisions of the government which throw people out of jobs; bid to make farmers slaves of the corporate houses; torture of rights activists who take on the government…there are unending issues which cry for attention. But what get highlighted are communal and parochial issues to whip up people’s sentiments.     

Hitting the street has its own problems. One has to take the risk of inviting the ire and anger of the powers-that-be. It might lead to getting on to someone’s nerves while reporting about his/her wrong-doings. But, it should not deter one from disseminating news -- uncoloured and unbiased. Various studies on attacks on journalists in India have recorded nearly 200 “serious instances” and at least 40 killings since 2014. Many journalists who dared to hit the streets to listen, encounter and engage have landed up in prisons charged under draconian laws. 

A Christian journalist’s role is no different from any other scribe in the profession. There could be occasions when his journalistic instincts clash with his allegiance to Church and its hierarchy. But it should not deter him from doing his job. Once, an Archbishop asked a priest-journalist to ‘go soft’ while dealing with Church issues. It is like saying ‘you may slap me, but I should not feel any pain.’ It is no journalism, but toeing the official line.