Ringside view of a polarised media

There is much to introspect about in this book that’s very relevant at a time of serious challenges to press freedom.

Ruben Banerjee’s Editor Missing: The Media in Today’s India is about the evolution of a reporter into an editor and about the state of the media in the country today. Banerjee, who was the editor-in-chief of the Outlook Group, was forced to quit abruptly for the cover story ‘Missing’ that the news magazine carried on May 24, 2021. The story was about the government which was ‘missing’ when the second wave of the Covid epidemic was sweeping the country. It detailed the failure of the government to cope with the challenges thrown up by the epidemic and the mismanagement of the situation.

It is sometimes perversely argued that governments do not bother about criticism in the media and that is why they have become impervious to public opinion and act with impunity. But the increasing pressures on the media and interventions in its functioning show that governments are more sensitive to and intolerant of criticism now than at any time in the past. Banerjee’s account shows that reporting certainly has consequences, and those who tell the story sometimes become victims. He had to pay with his job for the story, and the book gives an engaging account of the event and what led up to it.

Uncertain and unfree

Banerjee describes in detail how the cover story was decided and how the editorial team went about doing the story. While showing the failures of the government, the story also presented the government’s side. These details should be of interest to the common reader as they give a glimpse into the working of the newsroom. But the book’s real contribution is in giving some valuable insights into the working of the media in relation to the management and the government and in showing how uncertain and unfree the editor’s position is. It was not the first time that a story unpalatable to the government or to the owners of a news publication led to the sacking of the editor or a journalist. In that sense the story is old but the facts are new and they make it contemporary. Banerjee tells that story well and does it before it has gone cold with the passage of time. He supports his argument with evidence, including communications exchanged between the actors in the drama.

Banerjee writes about a number of people, incidents and situations that he came across as a reporter and later as an editor. Some of them are hilarious. Many others are interesting and informative because they show the stories behind stories and how stories were handled. His idea of journalism is clear: “The default setting of a free and responsible media is anti-establishment, as it is required to hold the mirror to those in power……For us, journalism needed to give both sides. And having represented all shades of view, editors serve their right to give their own opinion.’’ These are some basic principles which need retelling these days.

A credible memoir

The book is not just about the experiences he had as an editor. It also records the growth of a struggling reporter who became the editor of a premier news magazine. There are interesting events and episodes, including his experience of an interview for a newspaper job in his early days. The interviewer asked him to fetch tea and even when he did so he did not get the job. He was once chased out of the office of the Indian Express by its then editor Arun Shourie. He has worked for daily newspapers, magazines and international media. He was part of the editorial team that launched the English version of Al Jazeera from Doha, Qatar. It was with the varied experience gained from these that he went to the perch at Outlook and had the most disruptive experience in his professional life.

The story of the young man who “started out small, insignificant and struggling all the way’’ and reached a top editorial position in the country is itself interesting and might even inspire many. It is also the story of many others in other areas and professions, and may therefore be called a story of the times in that sense too. There is much introspection and self-examination and admission of failings and weaknesses. That gives the book credibility and makes it an honest record of his life and times.

Banerjee’s account is very relevant at a time when there are serious challenges to the media. The threat to media freedom comes both from the ruling establishment and from inside the media. There is often an understanding and an agreement for mutual assistance and protection of interests between the two. Banerjee notes that most media houses have grown risk-averse and prefer to play safe, defanging journalists and editors for the purpose of buying peace. He also feels that with big media having all but lost its appetite to stand up, it is up to the small, no-frills attached news outlets to step in because they have no business interests to protect.