“There is a specific unease of doing journalism”

Brut India

“Hope.” When Chief Editor of The Indian Express Raj Kamal Jha spoke about “journalism's mortality” at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards ceremony.   : Indian Express Indian Express Entertainment

Transcript

00:00There is an ease of doing business and there is a very specific unease of doing journalism.

00:08We have a journalist in this city who has to leave this city after two decades of living

00:14here because she wrote malicious stories.

00:18We had a judge from the court, high court, who told a reporter in open court after a

00:26mildly unflattering story, but a very fair story, I don't want to see you report on this

00:34court.

00:35That same judge resigns, joins a political party and is all sugar and honey on television

00:43when everybody sings his praise.

00:49Thank you, 1313.

00:53That is the number of Ramnath Goenka Award applications that we got this year, 1313.

01:05That's a record, that's a record in the last 18 years since we launched the Ramnath Goenka

01:13Awards.

01:15A thousand plus journalists and more than two dozen authors sending in their best work,

01:24stories and books, that very fact brings us hope.

01:31Hope when every day we hear, we hear intimations of journalism's mortality.

01:41Not many seem to care for us these days.

01:44I'm going to get into that later.

01:46Not many seem to care for us these days except our parents and some of our best friends and

01:54even those best friends who vote the way we do.

01:58Just take the last one month.

02:01I'm just taking five specific examples from last month.

02:06We had a judge from the court, high court, who told a reporter in open court after a

02:14mildly unflattering story but a very fair story, I don't want to see you report on this

02:22court.

02:23That same judge resigns, joins a political party and is all sugar and honey on television

02:32when everybody sings his praise.

02:39There's a journalist as well who joins another political party and gets a ticket.

02:49We have a journalist in the city who has to leave the city after two decades of living

02:55here because she wrote malicious stories.

02:59We have a leader who, when a journalist told him, when there was a reporter who asked him

03:08a question, he said,

03:12aapke maalik ka kya naam hai?

03:19And when a mob of his supporters roughed up the reporter, he said, usko mat maro yaar,

03:25usko mat maro.

03:27Then we have a few maaliks who have gone down on bended knee, so comfortable in that posture

03:37that it hurts if they stand up.

03:49There is an ease of doing business and there is a very specific unease of doing journalism.

04:05And that is why I really thank you, Honorable Minister, Sri Nitin Gadkari, for being here

04:11this evening, for saying that good journalism is an imperative of good governance.

04:20It may not have the tangible appeal of Bijli, Sadaq or Paani or Jalnal, Swachhata or Ayushman.

04:31It may be very hard to identify who is journalism's labharti.

04:37But the stories we celebrate this evening show the labh of journalism.

04:42Sir, your being here this evening also reinforces the fact that Mr. Goenka talked about, the

04:50need for politicians to have broad shoulders when it comes to journalism and journalists.

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