EDITORIAL

Doctors, lawyers, engineers are trained and certified; why not journalists?

A

fter spending 30 years working as a journalist for newspapers, periodicals, radio, television and news agencies in India and abroad, when I switched to editing a magazine targeting tourism and the hospitality industry, I discovered that it is only mainstream journalism that is recognized and respected by all -- right from the layman to the most powerful politician. The rest is considered trash. Completing one year with THE BLUE MOON in print, I realized that trade magazines are, to certain extent, rightly dumped as trash. During the past two and a half years, editing the online and then the print too, I came across several trade magazines on these subjects. Almost none of them, except for a couple, are managed or edited by professional journalists. Many of them are published by people who owned a printing press and found it profitable to run a magazine which will fetch them money and some respect as a journalist too. Anybody and everybody owning a small press came out with a publication, without any journalistic background whatsoever. My experience with the Registrar of Newspapers and the licensing department of the Delhi Police was nothing great. They verified names and antecedents of anybody who applied for a name and gave it – without even asking if he ever went to a proper school to lift a pen to write a few sentences correctly. I fail to understand what is the use of such police and registering authorities if journalistic experience is not a pre-requisite in granting such approvals. If doctors can’t practice without a license, chartered accountants need to have a registration, lawyers too need to be registered, then why should anybody be allowed to start a publication without a professional background. Seems the lawmakers do not have any interest on this issue though they call it the fourth estate of this democracy. Can such an important task be handed over to petty businessmen who throw all ethics to winds to grind their axe. This is exactly what is happening. Individuals who have never gone to a school of journalism or, at least, been trained in an institution of repute are publishing and editing newspapers and magazines on different subjects. I personally know several who have failed to phrase a single sentence correctly. They simply flash their visiting cards with ‘PRESS’ printed in red on it and try to bully people for petty advertisements. I have come across so-called travel publications which bend backwards to please bureaucrats and ministers to get advertisements and other favors. Imagine, in one issue of a publication the picture of a Secretary of a ministry was printed five times on different pages with different write ups. This is no professionalism, but simple sycophancy. I come across another ‘Editor-in Chief’ who always carries a couple of copies of his magazine and gives it only to his potential (advertisement) clients. Nobody knows if he prints more than 100 copies. One will never find these publications on the stands. With such ‘fakes’ moving around there is no doubt that all publications in that particular field come under the scanner. They are not taken seriously. They print trash which is meaningless except for praising the ministers and bureaucrats. Unfortunately, even the genuine journalists are considered a part of this bunch. I was shocked when an Information Officer of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) told me that he cannot provide any information to me because he serves the mainstream media only. He even asked me to show my PIB card in disbelief. One fails to understand what one would term a publication which does not carry general subjects, which is focused on one only, like tourism. Is it not part of the media? Are these publications not supposed to be getting the information that regular general ones get? What is their role if they are not to be treated at par with general media? It is time we drew a line and said, “Journalism for trained, educated journalists.” Any Tom, Dick and Harry printing anything he wishes to, does not mean it is freedom of the press. If media, print or electronic, has to play a constructive role in any democracy, it has to be in the hands of those who understand the seriousness of journalism. Petty, money-minded individuals should not be allowed to play havoc with this profession which influences decision makers in any country. Journalism cannot be termed mainstream or side stream or whatever. It is a very serious subject to be handled with utmost responsibility.

......Amit Mittal