THE corporate media in West Bengal is incessantly trying to convey to the people the message that the BJP and the Trinamool Congress are two poles, fighting against each other. But this is a false narrative. The Trinamool has favoured the BJP-RSS on various issues like CAA, NRC. In turn, the central agencies' role in investigating the corruption of Trinamool leaders speaks of deliberate dillydallying. Both these forces have to be defeated and the Left movement has to be rejuvenated. The renaissance of Bengal requires the resurgence of the Left. That fight is going on. CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim and Left Front Chairman Biman Basu gave this call in a meeting held on the occasion of 57th anniversary of the Ganashakti, the CPI(M) West Bengal state committee’s newspaper, in Kolkata on January 3. A discussion on “Attack on the Media and Rupture of Democracy” was also held on the occasion. Senior journalist and media educator Sashi Kumar was the chief speaker.

Samik Lahiri, editor of the Ganashakti, said in his welcome address, "We have come a long way. Our path has been thorny and difficult. Starting as a small weekly in 1967, Ganashakti's 57-year history has been written in blood, tears and sweat. Time and again, journalists, workers, newspaper vendors were attacked while trying to reach Ganashakti to the people. Even the readers were not spared. This series of attacks is not over yet.

Lahiri said the Ganashakti does not claim neutrality. Media neutrality is an illusion in this class-divided society. Ganashakti clearly declares that we are not neutral, we work for the interests of the working people. He said that 57 years of continuous publication of a daily newspaper is no small matter. Except for one newspaper, no newspaper existing in Bengal has such a long history. Lahiri said that any news today is filtered through many stages before it reaches the reader. So sometimes untruth, sometimes half- truth is served as news. Freedom of the press is largely the freedom of the owner of the press. Seventy per cent of the news media is corporate controlled, so they are more interested in selling than delivering news.

An economic blockade has been created in the path of Ganashakti. We will not give government advertisements, we will make arrangements so that Ganashakti does not get advertisements from private advertisers - this is the policy of today's Trinamool government. Amid these adverse conditions, donations from well-wishers have ensured the advance of Ganashakti.

FIGHT AGAINST FEAR

Md Salim explained the context of the attacks on Ganashakti while discussing the Left's constant fight against the anti-people policies of the Narendra Modi government at the centre and the Trinamool government in the state. He said, "Ganashakti journalists are exposing the huge faces of misgovernance, lawlessness and corruption in the country and state in their alternative commentary.” Revealing the misleading role of the mainstream media, Salim said this is happening because most of the corporate media are components of the Modi government's propaganda apparatus. As Lok Sabha elections are nearing, BJP is running various campaigns to polarise people along communal lines. The BJP, RSS and their subordinate media outlets are saying that Ram Mandir construction is going to be the biggest issue before the Lok Sabha polls. Why? How is it associated with Lok Sabha elections? Does the BJP remember what was promised in its 2014 manifesto? Before chanting the slogan of 'Modi hai toh mumkin hai', they should recall that they had promised jobs to two crore unemployed people every year, they said black money will be recovered from abroad, terrorism will be eradicated, internal security will be completely flawless, prices of goods will come down, petrol, diesel prices will be reduced to Rs 40 – did they manage to do it in the last 10 years? When these questions are asked they keep mum. Instead they spew out hatred based on religion. If there was actual development, there would be no need to use religion in politics.

Biman Basu in his presidential speech said, "Where is the difference between BJP and Trinamool? The driving force of the BJP is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. We have Trinamool in our state. The RSS gave birth to the Trinamool to lay the foundation for right-wing politics in West Bengal. When Trinamool was born, a campaign began that they were the true Leftists. Even today some people say Trinamool should be voted to stop BJP. Some others say BJP should be voted to resist Trinamool. Does Trinamool say even a word against RSS? They don't and they can’t. RSS is the creator of both BJP and Trinamool. This issue should be emphatically conveyed to the people of Bengal. Otherwise, right-wing politics cannot be stopped.”

MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY

Speaking on the occasion, Sashi Kumar began by saying that it was wonderful not only to be in Kolkata and West Bengal but also to be together with broadly like-minded people, as that is becoming increasingly difficult these days. The dominant agenda of our times is to engage in “othering”, not “togethering”. He said the core issue is freedom of speech as expressed in the media. He quoted Fali Nariman who had once put it very succinctly that in India one has freedom of speech but does not have freedom after speech. In India, particularly over the last 10 years, the freedom enshrined in Article 19(1) of the Constitution is being eroded by the clause of restraint of Article 19 (2). Reasonable restriction has to be reasonable to begin with. But we have seen every instance of its application can hardly pass muster as reasonable or justifiable for purposes of restricting a fundamental right, he commented. That the professional practice of freedom of speech, which is what journalism is all about, is under dire threat, Kumar said. We have gone through this once before, he reminded the audience. The older generation would remember 1975, Indira Gandhi and the Emergency. The difference is it was a declared emergency and the present one is an undeclared emergency and therefore far more insidious, dangerous, unpredictable, bewildering situation.

Freedom of speech is important because elections alone do not constitute a democracy. Many authoritarian, fascist, totalitarian figures and even Hitler were elected to power. What characterises a true representative democracy is the free press. In India in spite of all conflicts and contradictions our democratic process did have a free press except for that period of aberration - the Emergency-   which did not last long unlike what is happening today.

As we know with technological changes one of the defining characteristics of the new age of information is that apart from the formal press, there are all sorts of informal media, the social media which is in a sense a freewheeling anarchic space. But it is also valuable in many ways because when there is an atmosphere of extreme suffocation in formal media or formal means of communication of freedom of expression, this informal media is very valuable.
Social media is also in parts flooded with disinformation, fake news and misinformation. This is a big challenge because one always needs to verify the credibility of information. But who are the biggest purveyors of misinformation and fake news in social media today? They are not ordinary citizens. They are not even activist groups working with a diabolical purpose. They come from the troll farms of the ruling party at the Centre, the biggest trolling army the social media in the world has ever seen.
So besides speaking truth to power the press needs to counter misinformation that those in power are passing down to us in the name of truth.

Moreover the media is constrained because of threats. Threats are manifest sometimes – visible physical intimidation, financial threats to the organisation starting with the smallest measure, withdrawal of advertisements. Then of course there will be ‘friendly’ visits from ED, CBI, I-T Department and all the others. There is of course the manifest external threat of those in power bearing down on the media. Unfortunately, the society is not scandalised by this because the media’s peculiar ways of dealing with the truth have created a disconnect between the media and the ordinary citizen of the land. People don’t trust the media. There are many who think that the media is part of the problem. And this suits those in power quite well.

Here we may look at the way the world media is structured. There is a Swiss policy research study of 2016 and revalidated in 2019 that says 80 to 85 per cent of the news in the world comes from three news agencies: AP, AFP and Reuters. Their viewpoint is completely aligned to the US and NATO axis. If anything is against the US or NATO axis it will find mention in a peculiar language or may not be mentioned at all. So it is a tiered structure of information that is determined at one level which has a particular slant that subscribes to the demands of finance capital.
This slant is now being exposed in what is going on in Gaza.

The threat to the media today becomes acute over and above all this, because here we have a government which tries to create an environment where independent, objective, fair-minded media is seen as a liability or danger that should not be allowed exposure and should be punished. The way out lies in nurturing organs like Ganashakti, Deshabhimani and others which have a particular constituency of their own.