00:00It has to be answerable only to the public, not even to its owner.
00:06Okay? It sounds like fairy tale if we are looking at what is happening today,
00:11but I am just trying to wake you up, take you back to what actually is gender identity and democracy.
00:18We need to go back, perhaps. We need to go back to understand what is our role, what is my
00:24role as a gender.
00:25Okay? So, this is something that you see, what is propaganda coming in as journalism and what it can do
00:32to speak.
00:33Okay? We should not name here anything, but I see this is the medium used by everyone today in India.
00:41Okay? One, if you say this is great, the other say not great and the people are confused,
00:47because there is, the journalism has left the job. Okay? So, it is giving more and more space to propaganda.
00:54We just say, we need a pool, not so bad. Okay? That much of control.
00:59And during COVID-19, we saw lack of transparency, all hands to state-controlled media.
01:07Public had no accurate information about the outbreak or the spread.
01:12Instead, we saw propaganda material circulating in CCTV and global news and all of that,
01:20were accusing the West, actually, of bringing that virus to heart.
01:24The Australian and all, they brought it, things like that. Okay?
01:27So, their common people were being equipped to actually defend.
01:32At least 250 Indian journalists were thrown behind bars for questioning the damn government of the day. Okay?
01:41Why? For asserting the independence of media in a democracy.
01:45That's what happened to our own country, in our own country. Okay?
01:50At least 29 foreign journalists were asked to leave the country. Okay?
01:55Because they were asking, they want to report. Okay?
01:58They were asked to leave the country by then government.
02:02Government created a census with this. All news had to go through it for fact-checking. Okay?
02:09My job is, my allegiance is to the public, so I am accountable to the public.
02:15So, I have to ask you this question.
02:17If you cannot answer, don't answer.
02:19But don't stop me from doing my work. Okay?
02:23This is journalism, actually, which helps the citizen play that role effectively in a democracy.
02:29And how so? It is by keeping the government of the day accountable to them.
02:34That's how it is different from a monarchy or a feudal relationship where there is, you get to hear that,
02:42My Bab Sarkar or My Bab relationship.
02:44You know, it's a democracy.
02:47So therefore, to serve the citizens, a journalist is duty-bound to ask questions to those in power,
02:54on behalf of the citizens, the people, the public.
02:57Their work is therefore tied to public interest.
03:01It's very important to understand that journalism is a work done in public interest.
03:07So let's remind ourselves that the role of journalism in democracy is to come to the aid of the citizens.
03:16Come to the aid of the citizens. Why so?
03:20It is to keep the government of the day accountable. Okay?
03:25Could well be also a representative of the society that we are today.
03:30You know, the moral values of the society are going down.
03:33So journalists come from society only. So that is what we see.
03:36And of course, the financial model is so well, you know, entrenched, it is very difficult.
03:43Today, you know, when I started 24 years ago, journalists would, the editor would stand by the journalists.
03:52But today, how many editors are there?
03:54So we need to ask questions also whether the editors are failing that lecture.
03:59How many? And if he was talking about one editor,
04:05we need to think about whether the editors are actually standing by journalists today.
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