Media Lies

It seems every terrorist attack comes as a godsend for the media to direct its venom at Muslims.

Is there nothing that can deter the irresponsible reporting by the media? It seems every terrorist attack comes as a godsend for the media to direct its venom at Muslims and indulge in spreading falsehoods ranging from misreporting at best to maligning reputed organisations and persons of the community at worst.

The latest is from Vijaya Karnataka, a Kannada daily from Bagalkot, which had the audacity of splashing a totally fictitious piece of news about an absolutely innocent man on the lead story position and ‘informing’ the readers about ‘his arrest for plotting a bomb attack on the Almatti Dam’. The man in the ‘news’ was Fairozul Hasan Suri, a TV programmer from Bagalkot who runs a small production company called M2M and has produced several programmes for the ETV (Urdu), Doordarshan and the India TV. It was on July 29, that Suri got the rude shock when a telephone call from Bagalkot informed him in Delhi that the local daily’s lead news informs the readers that “he has been arrested for plotting a blast at the Almatti Dam over Krishna in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka”. It informed that ‘Suri had been arrested by the Bangalore Police and the Intelligence Bureau had taken him for interrogation and Suri had reportedly confessed his crime.’

It further said that Suri was a member of the Tablighi Jamaat and had links with the ISI, SIO and the QTV and was in contact with an accused of the terrorist attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

Curiously, the newspaper which is published from several centres in Karnataka including Bangalore, carried the news only in the three district editions published from Bagalkot. It appeared to be totally out of sync with the conventional set up of the newspaper which carries the same facsimile print of the first page and editorial page in all centres. As is learnt from the informed sources, the decision to splash the news selectively in Bagalkot editions of the daily was a local decision and no other edition carried the piece anywhere else. The story carried the bylines of two reporters, Vittal R. Balkundi and Ishwar Hungundi. It may be noted that G. V. Ethiraju is the resident editor of the daily at Bagalkot. The daily also carried computer manipulated photographs of Suri, showing him sporting a cap on the front page while the spillover portion of the story on an inside page showed him wearing sherwani.

Surprised at the appearance of the news, Suri returned to Bagalkot two days later, called a press conference and informed the media about the fabricated news. Even independent enquiries made by the media with the Superintendent of Police, Ramesh Harihar and DySP A. Y Patil revealed that there was nothing against Suri in their record. The two denied all allegations made by Vijaya Karnataka. The press conference was reported widely by all responsible dailies like Prajavani, Kannada Prabha, Samyukta Karnataka, Usha Kiran, Sanjevani, Nadu Noodi etc. However Vijaya Karnataka, Bagalkot has not yet published a denial mailed by Suri. Suri alleged that the daily was indulging in a malicious campaign against a peaceful citizen whose services to the society were well known.

Suri told Islamic Voice that following the daily’s refusal to publish a denial, he is contemplating legal proceedings against it. He said he was devoted to the cause of communal harmony and had led a rally against the bomb blast at Varanasi and depiction of Hindu deities by painter M. F. Hussain in his native town Kerur in the district. Even members of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal had participated in the rally, he added.

Kannada daily, Vijaya Karnataka and English daily Vijaya Times with their headquarters in Hubli were launched about five years ago by Mr. Vijay Sankeshwar, owner of VRL Transport company. Mr. Sankeshwar was elected Member of Lok Sabha on the BJP ticket for a couple of times. However, a few months ago, the group sold the papers to The Times of India group.