Media and security

7 Oct 2005. Attended an interaction program in between the media persons and security forces. It was organized by Conflict Afflicted Media Persons(CAMP) and Media Services International(MSI) with an objective of improving the relationship between media and security forces. Many editors of major dailies and weeklies were attending. Senior army and police officials were also there. The interaction started gently. It sometime took a rough ride with the passage of time. Both sides were almost offending and defending one another. But overall the interaction ended amicably.

We all understand the value of information. I realize the tremendous degree of hazards and risks that the media persons have to undertake while seeking out for news, in fact they are in more dangerous situation than the security persons find themselves. I appreciate and thank them for the contributions despites of the dangers. I feel sorry for the losses that they have incurred in the process. I understand that the information is power. But this power should not be misused. Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I think three things are dominating our relationship-- the situation, the attitude and the behavior. The situation is abnormal therefore the attitude towards one another is suspicious. There are extreme accusations on security forces that they are bent upon uprooting the democracy. On the other hand media persons are accused of glorifying the terrorists and terrorism. This type of attitude is prompting completely unfriendly behavior amongst them which is unfortunate.

The relationship is the result of the actions and reactions of both sides. Therefore we need to improve our actions and reactions. We know that there have been breach of law and code of ethics from both sides. Therefore the first thing we need to do is to correct our actions. All actions must be lawful and according to the code of ethics. These will make us disciplined; thus free from accusations of violations. We need to usher in the improvements in our faulty system. We must institutionalize good practices. And there is a need for creating a special task force to charting out a new code of ethics for both sides, at least for some time as long as the politics do not improve.