JOIN USThe country is witnessing an especially egregious run of media trial over the reported suicide of young actor Sushant Singh Rajput and over the investigations into various matters related to it. The Mumbai police, which first investigated the case, concluded that the death was a suicide on the basis of the post-mortem report and other known circumstances. But the case was transferred to the CBI by the Supreme Court after a FIR was registered in Patna by the Bihar police against Sushant Singh’s friend and actress Rhea Chakraborty with charges including abetment to suicide. The CBI has started its investigation. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) are also investigating charges relating to money laundering and drug abuse and trafficking. These are legitimate investigations, but the big media circus taking place on television channels is wrong, and it overshadows the investigations.
The spectacles being staged on the channels are excessive, sordid and violative of all basic principles of media ethics and conduct. The death of a celebrity is a matter of public interest but the no-holds-barred coverage is very disproportionate and raises apprehensions about a coordinated campaign. Unhealthy competition amounts to coordinated action in effect. Every wrong element has been thrown into the brew that gets cooked round-the-clock in the studios, with too much spice, and even bile thrown in. The whole narrative is one-sided, sensational, loud and exaggerated, and much of it is based on rumours and gossip. The actress and her family are continuously harassed. There are dire inroads into the privacy of individuals, and there is misogyny, voyeurism and a pandering to the baser instincts. Crime scenes are rebuilt, new characters and witnesses invented, and new victims created. There is shouting and screaming, and a frenzy directed more against some persons than intended to find the truth.
Finding the truth is the remit of the investigating agencies. The job of the media is only to report it. But it is now taking on the roles of the judge and the jury and is an executioner of reputations, forgetting its own role. Rhea Chakraborty has been declared the villain and #Arrest RheaNow is splashing across screens, and #JusticeforRhea is not far behind. This is unprecedented. The media has not sunk to this level before. The Press Council has noted that all media norms have been violated, and the so-called self-regulatory mechanism of the Broadcasting Council is felt only by its absence. The Bombay High Court has told the media to observe restraint, but the show is still going on. It demeans the media itself, makes fools of people, obstructs the course of justice and undermines the rule of law.