A Criminologist's Diary-55

A Criminologist’s Diary-55

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

ABUSE or MISUSE of Media

This is an era of media and media-men. In a democracy, media is the fourth estate. If anybody is afraid of something in a democracy, it is really the media and media alone. The politicians, the bureaucrats, the administrators, the ministers of the ruling government, the judges, the spiritual men, the so-named ‘religious’, the Mafia, the bandits, the crime syndicates, the white collar criminals and who not- in fact, they are not afraid of one another, for they know the limitations of each in a democracy. They are certainly afraid of the media if they are fake, not honest or nefarious in their activities. If one’s image is lost in public, then everything is lost for him. The public image, the public trust, and the public approval-all these are important in a democracy. Precisely therefore, the media can be abused or misused to damage or destroy the public image of a person. The public image of a person is created not one day, too soon. Articles are written, cartoons are drawn, press conferences are convened, statements are produced, public addresses are made, mimicry is performed, cinemas are shot, dialogues are written, cultural programmes are organized, books are written, discussions are arranged and thus a variety of strategies may be adopted to caricature the true image of some personalities in public. The T.V. discussions conducted are sometimes misused by politicians to tarnish their opponents in politics. Misuse of the media or abuse of the media power-they are often blamed as the cause for the defeat of the rule by a political party after an election. Certain criminal cases are kept alive by the media and the crime which took place about many decades ago is brought to light. What about the ISRO case?-Abaya case in Kerala?-atrocities during the emergency, lock up death of Rajan at Kakkayam camp? They never die and certainly one may observe the abuse or misuse of media and media-men for catering to the parochial interests of some people and not for social welfare and community’s happiness.

The advertisements in the media are another major area of media abuse or misuse. Lakhs and lakhs of people are cheated by false advertisements. In all major crimes like investment frauds, Mafia crimes, organized racketeering, sale of fake medicines, spurious drugs, adulterated food, sale of God’s graces and prayers for healing of incurable diseases (healing ministry?-it is popularly called),etc., one sees the misuse or abuse of media power. When the crimes are sold, the media makes enormous or exorbitant profit in participating in the commission of crimes with little or no liability. Media may be misused/abused for propaganda of false news about issues, events and individuals. They publish and publicize news with views and sometimes, the views will be with vested interests or bias. The press and T.V. are owned and operated by political parties, religious men/communities, and communal interests, sectarian groups, vested interests etc. and they make use of, misuse or abuse the media power for their advantage. There is an oft-quoted cliché-‘the pen is mightier than the sword’-and it has been proved time and again that the saying is 100% true .Now the saying is: ‘Media is mightier than bomb’ to destroy anything in public mind. The media can be print, electronic, cultural etc. How to minimize, reduce or prevent media crimes is a live topic of wide discussion everywhere in these days!