When Sensation San Sensibility

Yellow News and Sensationalism are the result of 24x7 media, overselling the news and when Kashmir is there, overselling becomes effortless. Here I evaluate the diverse treatment of the release of Indian prisoner form Pakistani Jail Kashmir Singh received in various media outlets.

World is flat. The neo-capitalist perception may not be true for the whole globe but the statement holds water in the context of Kashmir. To Kashmiris, their’s has been a real flat world which from time and again have been razed to ground along with centuries old aspirations and dreams.

Kashmiris who live in a small valley squeezed between nuclear armed Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan have been killed whenever Indians perceive them as threat to their “territorial integrity”. Even Pakistan leaves them in the dock as a matter of exigency. Indians ridicule Muslim Kashmiris and back out from promises (Guys they are yet to carry out what their PM during a UN general Assembly in 1948 promised Kashmir- a full fledged plebiscite) whenever they get a feel of having consolidated their position on ground. Between these two extremes no effort is spared to hurt, demoralize and demonize Kashmiri people. Kashmir, in a way, has turned out to be a project for the India’s national consciousness of which army, politicians, media and intellectuals are just active contestants.

This is why when Kashmir Singh, a spy, was released from Pakistani jail after 35 years, headline experts of several news agencies in India, newspapers, radio and television invoked their ‘creative’ instincts to come up with something sensational—a dirty yellow.

Nationalistic venom, Journalistic freedom, or creativity—call it anything, but Kashmiris believe that, in a veiled reference 'Kashmir' was made a butt of jokes. Media men came up with sensational headlines, which apparently were directed more towards Pakistan but hit the ‘national pride’ of Kashmiris, consciously, in the process of news blitz. 

‘Pakistan hands over Kashmir to India’ was how United News of India (UNI) broke the news. 'India gets Kashmir back from Pak' read The Times of India issue. Pak returns Kashmir to India—flashed CNN-IBN and many more news media organizations following suit. But apart from creativity, I believe that it was just another day of selling news while sensationalizing Kashmir, because Kashmir gets them TRP’s. Simple.

You might think that these headlines are quite catchy, but the headline writers have tried to add salt and pepper to sell their news—they have bartered Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The creativity is there, but the headlines are actually aimed to lampoon Kashmiris.

And again, if we try to draw out denotations from these headlines, these clearly indicate favoritism on the part of copy editors. Headline like ‘Freedom of Kashmir from Pakistan’ not only takes one aback but pushes a Kashmiri living under a thatched roof to curse his fate not the headline writer who is creative somewhere in New Delhi of Mumbai skyscrapers.

 When was Kashmir the part of either of these two countries? I ask myself fiercely. And why didn’t they add 'Singh' with the initial name of prisoner. They rather chose to give it a definite slant as if Kashmir was their property.

Because Kashmir Singh's initial name is also the name of a region—Kashmir that is divided between India and Pakistan, and both of whom claim whole of it as their own part, media, mostly Indian had a good fun-time playing with the word.

Whenever the two countries have to settle their score, Kashmir always comes handy for both. And this is what we as Kashmiris have gone through form past 62 years, despite Kashmir subject to 14 UN resolutions.

'Kashmir back from Pakistan after 35 years', NDTV ran as Breaking News, while other channels flashed 'India gets Kashmir from Pakistan after 35 years' as headline. Then there is a web portal news www. webindia123.com that pasted 'Pakistan returns Kashmir to India' on its home page. Daily News and Analysis (DNA) wrote 'Cheers & tears as Pak hands over Kashmir'.

From such ‘creativity’ it again proves that Kashmir is a scoop for news makers in both the countries—but the irony is news makers played with the sentiments of more than 7 million souls of J&K.

These titles don't suggest Kashmir Singh as a free person, rather, in the present context it is clearly referred to the Kashmir region being ‘handover’ by Pakistan to India. The name Kashmir Singh seems to have been deliberately confused with the Kashmir only to get attention and improve audience attendance.

"What if tomorrow any person with the name Bharat dies—shall they run, 'Bharat is no more’ as a headline," my friend asked me when I was writing this piece. Though a fan of NDTV and Times of India, he believes that the local Kashmiri press has been successful in upholding all the ethics of report writing.

Surely such organizations have undermined the journalism ethics and cannons and these titles are nothing but a part of "perverse journalism" intended to oversell news.

Tail Tale: “It’s not Murdochisation. It is Bharkhanisation of media. We may soon witness another –isation.”

AND THE CREATIVITY:

Pakistan hands over Kashmir to India’------UNI

Kashmir back from Pakistan after 35 years'--- NDTV

Cheers & tears as Pak hands over Kashmir---DNA

Pak returns Kashmir to India, raises hopes----CNN-IBN

Pakistan returns Kashmir to India----www.news.webindia123.com

India gets Kashmir from Pakistan after 35 years----- CNN IBN

India gets Kashmir back from Pak' ---- The Times of India