“The independent newspapers in general have become the favourite whipping boy of politicians, high and low, during recent years. ‘Commitment is the catchword of the new political genus of self-styled socialist revolutionaries and opportunist politicians. The democracy they would like to order for the country is one with a ‘committed judiciary, a ‘committed’ press and a ‘committed’ what you will, in short a ‘commitment all round, except ‘commitment by themselves to preserve all the liberties that go to make a democratic society.”
JANUARY 24, 1971
Pressures on the press
THE LETTERS FROM READERS WHICH APPEAR ON THIS PAGE – they are only a sampling of a large number we have received – throw timely light on the pressures which independent newspapers like THE HINDU have to cope with even in a democratic country like India. The pressures come not only from politicians but also from governments and are aimed at forcing the newspapers to toe their particular lines. These pressures whose intensity seems to grow or lessen according to the fluctuations in the fortunes of the political parties and governments concerned, are sometimes exerted subtly, at other times blatantly. It has been THE HINDU’s lot to experience the latter variety of pressure in recent days. Some observant readers have not failed to notice the sudden drying up of Tamil Nadu Government advertising in THE HINDU during the past few days and have wondered if it could have anything to do with an editorial we wrote on January 5 last under the title “D.M.K. takes the Plunge”. We have of course no way of knowing why exactly the Government decided to depart from usual practice and curtail its advertising in our paper but the sequence of developments would seem to indicate that the editorial has had a bearing, as some readers suspect, on the Government’s decision. On the very next day after the editorial appeared the Government, to our surprise, cancelled all the advertisements it had booked in advance with the paper. On our taking the issue up with the Director of Information and Publicity, two of the cancelled advertisements were re-released but the Government seems to have decided that THE HINDU shall not have the same number of advertisements as its contemporaries, though it did enjoy parity till the other day. And the Government’s classified advertisements stayed switched off till January 22, after which date one has trickled in. We are yet to receive the clarification we sought from the Chief Minister of the reasons for the Government’s sudden decision to taper off its advertising in our columns. We are of course not the first newspaper in the country to be subjected to this kind of governmental pressure. Some other State Governments in recent years have also tried it against newspapers in their region that were critical of the official policy. There is perhaps no government in the world which does not wish that the entire press should support its policies. But a government using its official machinery as a lever for influencing editorial opinion of newspapers is quite different and serious matter. It is uncondonable in a democratic society.
As for the Tamil Nadu Congress (R) President, Mr. R. V. Swaminathan’s diatribe the other day against THE HINDU, the “Indian Express” and the “Dinamani” for their not having given his party’s election propaganda meetings as much space and prominence as he would have liked and his threat that they would be “crushed” after the elections if they did not mend their ways, this too is not the first instance of a frustrated politician venting his spleen on the independent press. Some D.M.K. leaders also have lately been making similar attacks at public meetings. This is a disturbing trend. Such attacks may pay some shortterm dividends but they are bound to prove not only counter-productive in the long run but also destroy the fabric of orderly society. The independent newspapers in general have become the favourite whipping boy of politicians, high and low during recent years. “Commitment” is the catchword of the new political genus of self-styled socialist revolutionaries and opportunist politicians. The democracy they would like to order for the country is one with a “committed” judiciary, a “committed” press and a “committed” what you will, in short, a “commitment” all round, except “commitment” by themselves to preserve all the liberties that go to make a democratic society. Mr. Swaminathan’s tirade against the three newspapers could have been brushed aside as the outburst of what one of our readers, in a letter we published the other day, described as an “inconsequential politician” but for the fact that the Prime Minister and others who shared the dais with him at the Madras meeting and who spoke later said nothing to dissociate themselves from his views. This causes some concern. Could it mean that they concurred with what he said? If they did, Indian democracy is indeed at a dangerous pass.
A free press is as essential a limb of democracy as a parliament freely elected by the people or an independent judiciary. When political parties and governments set out to frighten the press into conformity, it is not press freedom alone that they are trying to cut down but it is democracy itself that they are out to subvert. If newspapers that do not follow a particular party’s line are threatened with extinction, it is logical to wonder if the people who do not vote for that party will also face a similar fate should that party come to power.
It is to the credit of Indian public opinion that despite the sustained campaign mounted against the independent newspapers by some politicians, parties and governments, these newspapers have continued to function freely, thus enabling press freedom to flourish. It is in the hands of the people essentially that the future of our democracy lies. As long as they remain vigilant and zealous in safeguarding all their rights, democracy will be safe, politicians and governments notwithstanding. But only so long as they remain so.
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I