Tuesday, December 21, 2010

What should be our "Circle of Affection" ?

As a daily routine my brother was going through the newspaper and analyzing it. In between he made a call to the representative of a news agency which releases the news for all the newspaper of my city. It was about a news in which a student has tried to commit suicide and the agency has included his true detailed identity.
The conversation which later turned into an argument was about the repercussion of that news. The big question was how sensitive a media person should be while using the identity of the person and what can be its repel effect ?

My brother was supporting the view that a media person should avoid using the identity of the person in such cases. He supported it by different examples like how victimized the person would feel, about his family etc. But the person on the other side was unwilling to understand all this and was supporting the view that we should mention the identity.

After a long discussion my brother asked him tell me if it was someone from your family or me, then what would you have done. The person on other side replied I would have avoided using the identity. He explained him because he is from your family or I am close to you and you don't want to spread something bad about us. And then he asked a very emotional and strong question.

What should be our circle of affection : limited to our family, our friend, our street, our area, our city, our state, our country or the whole world. Because at the end of the day it is a human being who is facing the harsh side effects of journalism.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Gandhi and his Philosophy

Politician: This is a mere allegation. The video has been tampered, this is not at all my voice and picture is not that clear to identify whose face it is.

Reporter: But analysts say that it is you only and they have matched the voice with the speech that you gave on Independence Day.

No one knows the truth and we can't trust either of them because one is a politician and the other is a media person. Such is the condition of society in the country of Buddha, Mahavir, Vivekanand, Gandhi etc. These were the people with principles, with values, with discipline and they lead by example.
Today we talk about Gandhi and always try to make distance from his principles of truthfulness and non-violence. We can see Gandhi on the wall of every government office but it is very difficult to find a office free from corruption and following the Gandhian philosophy. I have personally felt that today it has become a trend for youths to abuse Gandhi, people never try to relate to what he has done and start criticizing him.
I would just say that at least try to know the person before u make any judgment against him, be it your friend, enemy or someone like Gandhi.