JNU Controversy: Broadcast Media Skewed Events On The Ground

Broadcast media’s excessive righteousness in the JNU affair skewed events on the ground.

- Anoo Bhuyan

Pawan Nara of Zee News was on duty at the JNU campus on February 18 with his cameraman, readying to report on the protest rally planned for that day. Suddenly, he found himself surrounded by a group of laughing, teasing students who offered him flowers. He says they told him to “Get well soon”. They were referring to his television coverage of the now-infamous February 9 event held to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir, and oppose the hanging of Afzal Guru and JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat.

On February 19, NDTV India’s top anchor, Ravish Kumar, did his nightly Prime Time programme from his studio in Greater Kailash, New Delhi. Except, this time there were no visuals or guests. For 41 minutes, viewers heard only Kumar’s voice emanating from a black TV screen. Almost poetically, he touched on ill-health. “You all already know our television is unwell. We are all unwell. I am also unwell. TV has got TB. In the name of debate, does this daily noise give you light or darkness?” he said.

Nara was one of two television reporters at JNU on February 9. The other was from the news agency ANI. “I sent a photo of the poster to journalists on a WhatsApp group that I have, and told them that we at ABVP would be opposing this event,” says ABVP’s Saurabh Kumar Sharma. The contentious poster called for opposing the ‘Brahminical collective conscience’ and the ‘judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat’ and also endorsed the ‘democratic right to self-determination’ of the Kashmiri people. Sensing a TV-worthy faceoff, Nara’s bureau chief asked him to head to JNU.