To colleagues working in their newsrooms or on the field in these days of Corona scare… To those comrades who will not or cannot isolate or quarantine themselves… To associates who will tomorrow again “cover” Parliament, the offices on Raisina Hill, or various hospitals, or other ‘beats’… From my hardworking young friend @IamNaveenKapoor handle I may not be anywhere there, but my thoughts, my wishes, my applause are always for you, with you… When countrymen open their newspapers, switch on to a news channel or log onto a news-site, they will know what they want to know because you were there to source out what you know they will want to know… When such calamities strike, editors scramble reporters to ground zero. And this time, it’s ground zero everywhere! What is worse – and what I can understand – your beat, your daily reporting will become tougher and tougher as the “society is walled off”. And the times aren’t good for either news or for the media industry a

Perhaps the biggest leap taken by mankind in recent time on social media or a messaging platform was with the invention of WhatsApp. It is free (almost), it is convenient, and it is ubiquitous! But armchair warriors have turned this boon into a bane! With several hate messages going viral on WhatsApp following north-east Delhi riots, @DelhiPolice tweeted on March 3: “Hey guys! Not done. You have taken the job of spreading नफ़रत so brazenly. Rest assured, we are watching you all, and mighty well. While we know some of these are fake IDs, be sure of our capabilities to hunt you down  😎 . Take this as a sweet warning! #DelhiPoliceNailsFake” An idea that was meant to unite is being used by bigots and zealots to divide. They are spreading falsehood and – through it – also hatred. There is a term that is being widely used for messages that have no basis, only bias – WhatsApp University. Again, this is how a senior police officer in India, @IPSMadhurVerma, made

(Pic courtesy: Gopal Dutt Sharma) In India, it may. But many a times it cannot. This despite the fact that media -- especially TV news -- is said to be self-regulatory. Take the example of a government ban on two Malayalam (Kerala) news channels over their coverage of violence in Delhi. The 48-hour embargo, imposed on February 6 was however revoked the next day following “representation” from the channels, reported news outlets. The order reportedly included… "Channel's reporting on Delhi violence seems to be biased as it is deliberately focusing on the vandalism of CAA supporters... It also questions RSS and alleges Delhi Police inaction. Channel seems to be critical towards Delhi Police and RSS…". (Pic courtesy: Gopal Dutt Sharma) If so, is this an official statement on who, or what the media cannot or should not "criticize"? Not the first time Indian media critical of the government of the day was “banned”. It was perhaps wors