Retributions  

We need better media management

After reports began appearing that some of the terrorists in the Taj Hotel had been killed, the Commissioner of Mumbai Police, Hasan Gafoor, appeared on CNN-IBN confirming that all terrorists were dead and the operation was over. Moments later, CNN-IBN began reporting that J.K Dutt, the man leading the NSG operations in Mumbai had said that the operations were still in progress.

Mr Gafoor and Mr Dutt were both right. From the harried Commissioner’s perspective, the operation was over as all the terrorists had indeed been killed. But the NSG could not declare that the operation had concluded before they had completed sanitizing the hotel. CNN succinctly summed up the confusion by pointing out that ”officials differ on the situation in Mumbai.”

This confusion could have been avoided if there was a single person authorized to speak to the media. Instead, every institution–Police, Army, NSG and shockingly even Marine Commandos(MarCos)–spoke to the media with abandon often offering contradictory versions. The Army, for example, prematurely declared Taj had been sanitized– it took NSG almost 24 more hours to complete the mission. Similarly, there were repeated claims that operations would be over ‘’soon” and the final assault was underway. That operations continued long after such pronouncements sharply belied the claims.

With the world media’s attention focused on Bombay, the various contradictions were played up even more. There should have been no shame in admitting the difficulty of the operations instead of raising expectations needlessly. Similarly, the fight to grab credit showed India’s security agencies in poor light. The MarCos press conference, for example, sounded like a veritable justification for their inability to eliminate the terrorists; their words may now come back to haunt them.

Now, shutting out media from a crisis of this proportion would be unwise. If the media does not have any official word, it is quite likely that it will rely on hearsay or simply make up the news. Therefore, while media needs to be kept informed, a balance must be struck where the information does not compromise operational details and creates avoidable confusion.

It is essential that in future crises of this nature, the political leadership must step in appoint a point person for media interaction: A spokesperson for the Crisis Management Group (CMG) who would entrusted with the responsibility of speaking to the media after collating and verifying information from different agencies.

The media also needs to introspect its role. Perhaps, the most egregious example of the media overreach was the live telecasting by India TV of telephonic talks with the terrorists inside the hotel and Nariman House. Modern terrorists thrives on publicity and giving this kind of space to murderers is simply unacceptable. Similarly, until firmly told to back off by the government, the media mounted a live telecast of the operations. Surely, the media cannot be blind to the fact that terrorists could have been monitoring television telecasts and would have exploited them for their own benefits. The headless instant punditry and violation of privacy of guests who had sustained traumatic experiences for so many hours was unforgivable. In their quest for higher TRPs, media cannot lost every semblance of human decency.

The government and the media need to sit down and evolve a code of conduct to be followed in such crises. While the freedom of press is essential in a democracy, some regulations will have to be imposed: no live telecast of operations; no rumor mongering; no publicity for terrorists. Perhaps, including a permanent media representative in the CMG may be the first step forward.

We live in an era of instant news and 24/7 TV coverage. The government and media both share a common responsibility not to let the reach and power of media to be exploited by those who seek to destroy us.