From Koimoi.com by Manjusha Patil
Since the day of Salman Khan’s conviction and subsequent bail, the media had gone berserk in covering it and
commenting upon it. Those with a platform to scream and shout were doing
so to their heart’s content. The rest were using every possible opportunity in
traditional or social media to make vicious attacks on him in the garb of
sympathy for the poor or concern for the judicial system in India.
Every freelance
journalist/columnist was giving lessons in morality and shedding tears for
people he/she didn’t care about for the last 13 years. The suit was followed on
the social media as well. It was not a coincidence. The outrage was being
engineered. The sudden concern for everything that is bad with the Indian
judicial system also, was deliberate and timed for a particular purpose.
Media’s conduct in all this was highly objectionable and condemnable to say the
least.
Media chose to selectively inform, misinform, mislead and
criticize baselessly. They arranged debates on wrong premises and tried putting
words in people’s mouths. Some media houses ran twitter hash tags that were
sure to invoke strong ‘for & against’ views. It was actually an
exercise in unnecessary maligning of the man as the ‘against’ brigade was bound
to go ballistic.
They used Salman’s name and popularity to gain TRPs
& eyeballs and then dished out the spun, warped reports and opinions to
this increased viewership and readership, to denigrate him further. They had
been at it for years and this verdict provided an opportunity to take it to a
new level.
Let’s see a few tricks that were being played for a while
and some new ones.
The Power of Repetition - First and foremost, they termed it
as a ‘Hit and Run’ case and ‘drunk driving’ case even before all the details
were out and even before the trial started. For the last 13 years, they freely
referred to Salman Khan as the person ‘who killed people sleeping on the
pavement with his reckless, drunk driving’. They had given their verdict even
before the trial started and this constant reference for years affected people
in such a way that everybody started taking it for granted.
Many a times, accident was described in such a fashion as
if the reporter were inside the car when everything happened. On what basis and
with what authority they were doing it is anybody’s guess. But the
result of this ceaseless repetition is such, that now even if it is proven
beyond doubt and with clinching arguments that Salman was not driving the car
and was not drunk; people will find it hard to believe.
The inordinate delay – Media harped a lot about the delay without
mentioning even once that this is how Indian courts work and a verdict coming
after 15-20 years is no big deal. Suggesting and letting people think that the
delay has been caused by the defense suited them better. They also did not
bother to talk about statements like this one from victim Abdullah Rauf Shaikh
who has said on record, “During the course of case there was no attempt to
bribe me by any one, to change or to rehash my statement. Police called me
according to the dates and I went and gave my statement whenever I was asked
to. There was no pressure, I said what I saw and experienced. My statement was
never tampered with.”
Apart from Abha Sing’s empty claims, there was nothing
they could show as an effort from Salman’s side to cause a delay. Yet, they
didn’t stop suggesting that the defense has purposely delayed the case.
Ten Years’ Imprisonment - Once the clause of culpable
homicide not amounting to murder was added and fresh trial started in 2012,
they deliberately started mentioning 10 years imprisonment everywhere. The much
discussed clause IPC 304 (II) also has the option of only fine as the
punishment. The punishment could be 0 to 10 years of imprisonment, a fine or a
combination of both and not only 10 years imprisonment as hammered by the
media. This provision of fine was not mentioned at all. Every single time if
there was even a passing mention of the case, they made it a point to say that
Salman can face up to 10 years of jail term. Then the words ‘up to’ slowly
disappeared and he was ‘facing a 10 year jail term’. All this made people
believe that if convicted he is going to be sentenced to a 10 year jail term.
So, when the five years’ sentence came which itself was harsh, people felt it
was less and a favor is being done to Salman Khan.
The Bail drama - It was pretty clear that the case was going to the High
Court. Yet, they ran stories of how Bollywood is going to be affected and
created an atmosphere that made people believe, it’s all over for Salman khan
and now he is going to spend five years in jail. Salman’s was obviously a fit
case for bail and he was going to get the bail sooner or later. Even though his
bail was a result of preparedness and swift action of his lawyers, they made
the bail itself look like a gross injustice. It was discussed incessantly and
despite assurances by the lawyers that there is nothing irregular about it, the
TV anchors and press reporters did not budge from their stand. They ran
provocative headlines when they knew there is nothing unusual about both the
things. And then the entire line of reporting was fashioned like this. They
tried to give a feeling of common man being wronged which evoked just the
reaction that they wanted.
Problem of Undertrials without bail – This problem was mentioned time
and again to convince people that it is a grave injustice to grant bail to
Salman. The fact is these undertrials can’t get bail as they don’t have money
to pay for the bail bond. This is an age old problem and nobody can do anything
about it apart from may be paying that money for them. If this problem
is to be made the basis of any decision of granting bail, then nobody in India
would get bail, ever. Media used the problem of undertrials to the hilt by
giving only partial information in a suitable manner and made people get really
angry with Salman’s bail.
The truth of compensation and helping the victims - They kept shouting about victims
not being compensated. They chose not to mention or hide the fact that after
the accident, HC had ordered Salman to pay Rs. 19 lakhs as compensation to the
victims which he promptly deposited with the government. (The kin of the
deceased did not get compensation as they were fighting among themselves and
their share still lies with the govt.) Most importantly, HC instructed Salman
not to give any further help or contact the victims as they might get
influenced. He was stopped from helping Ravindra Patil for the same reason. Media knew the exact status of compensation and also knew why Salman’s hands
were tied yet they kept going on and on about how he has not helped the victims
in the last 13 year.
Curious case of Ravindra Patil - Just before the verdict was to be
announced, the story making a hero out of Ravindra Patil suddenly appeared out
of nowhere and started circulating widely without anybody bothering to verify.
The fact is Ravindra Patil changed his initial statement and added the detail
of Salman being drunk to his new statement given later. According to some
sources, he was indeed under pressure but it pertained to involving Salman khan
and not the opposite. Patil’s testimony, his absence from hearings, his
running away and his being abandoned by his family are actually a matter of
separate investigation and not a black and white story as depicted by the
media. Media not only portrayed Ravindra Patil as a hero but also tried to make
people believe that Salman was responsible for his death.
How dare you ‘Sympathize with a criminal’? - Salman got a considerable support
and sympathy from many quarters as the sentence looked harsh and dismissive of
even the valid defense arguments. People who knew Salman closely obviously
expressed their shock and support on twitter. Unfortunately, Abhijeet and Farah Khan Ali tweeted
something stupid and the media pounced upon this chance to dismiss all the
sympathy from Bollywood as that of heartless, insensitive and selfish people.
If a brother, a friend, a dear colleague or somebody one
knows well, likes or respects happens to be in such a situation, anybody will
react the same way. But this basic fact was not recognized. Abhijeet and Farah Khan Ali cannot
be considered representatives of Bollywood by any parameter yet media insisted
it was so. Every sympathetic reaction was pushed in the same category as these
two and then the entire fraternity was slammed. Sympathizing with Salman was
equated with being indifferent to the accident victims even though these two
things are not mutually exclusive. It was made to look like a sin and termed as
siding with the ‘criminal’. This also applied to fans and other sympathizers.
Anybody who was not showing a vicious glee for Salman’s sentence was shamed and
slammed. This was more true of Print and social media.
Bringing up the past gossips – As if the negativity being generated
with reference to the case was not enough, they kept talking about unrelated
things in his past. These controversies in the past were actually baseless
gossip spread by the media in the first place. And whether it was past or the
present; the massive charity work that he does through Being Human and even
outside of it, was not supposed to be talked about. Whenever the issue of
charity was brought up by the fans and the sympathizers, it was dismissed or
trivialized by the media people, especially on social media.
In short, Media made use of common man’s ignorance or
obvious lack of knowledge about legal proceedings as well as other facts about
the case and used it for working up a public opinion against Salman.
Their job was to state things as they are, report in a
matter of fact manner and remain impartial even if they were inviting opinions
from people. But they made it a point to spin it against Salman and engineer an
outrage against him. When it came to reporting about the mood of public, they
continued in the same vein and highlighted resentment more than the support and
kept the campaign going. This applied to TV as well as the print media and
internet. If we add the social media to it, it was nothing short of a witch
hunt.
Sadly, even in future; a dispassionate, matter of fact
reporting, intelligent debates by real experts and giving opinions in unbiased
manner is going to be too much to ask for, as far as Salman’s case is
concerned.
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