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Media urged to focus on human devel
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Media urged to focus on human development
The Hindu (New Delhi)
November 4, 2000
By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI, NOV. 3. Mr. I.A. Rehman, Director, Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, has given a call for correcting human development priorities
in the media by placing political rights in the proper scheme of things.
?The problem with the concept of human development is that we are being
asked at best to concentrate on some less important indices. Without
people?s political rights occupying the center-stage, the human
development discourse is not complete,? he said at a discussion on
?Media and Human Development? organized by the Nikhil Chakravartty
Memorial Foundation this evening.
Referring to equitable sharing of wealth, Mr. Rehman said the fruits of
human development would reach the people only if the producers of wealth
became the masters of the means also. Systems needed to promoted human
development in South Asia are non-existent and that is the reason why
there has been further lowering of development standards. It was the job
of the media, therefore, to ensure that this trend is reversed.
?All over South Asia, States are abdicating their responsibility and
sharpening their tools of coercion,? he said pointing out that the
failure to resolve ethnic issues, misgovernance and abuse of State
machinery and the sway of armed bigots closing all routes to tolerance
is threatening to extinguish democracy and block all routes to human
development.
?What is being described as human development today is the real
unfinished agenda of freedom fighters who wanted to liberate the country
from colonial rule,? Mr. Rehman said, adding that media must accept its
role as a pillar of civil society. ?In all matters concerning human
development, what is incidental cannot be allowed to replace what is
fundamental,? he added.
Mr. Rehman said the crux of the dilemma which found its echo in the
media also was this talk of human development without empowering the
beneficiaries and insisting that only a few have the right to assess
these concerns.
Responding to the issues raised by Mr. Rehman, Ms. Sreelatha
Swaminathan, General Secretary, All India Women?s Federation, said
everything in this country boiled down to the political question. ?The
tragedy of today?s media is that it is trying to depoliticise things
which essentially can have only a political solution,? she said.
Mr. Nikhil De, who is working among the tribals in Jhabua district in
Madhya Pradesh said that ?the common problems of people in South Asia
are the most basic problems?. Ms.Pamela Phillipose, Senior Editor,
Indian Express, said, ?If media is to be an agent of human development,
there has to be eye-mind-heart journalism?.
Summing up the discussion, economist Mr. Arun Ghosh said that the
conflict between the State and civil society was at the root of the
human development problem in South Asia. ?As long as media is dependent
on advertisement revenue, it cannot become independent,? he opined.
Justice P.B. Sawant, Chairman, Press Council of India and Prabhash
Joshi, Editor, Jansatta, paid rich tributes to Nikhil Chakravartty on
his 87th birth anniversary. Mr. Sawant announced that the Nikhil
Chakravartty Memorial Foundation has started functioning with a corpus
of Rs. One lakh contributed by one of its trustees.
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<blockquote><b><font size=+2>Media urged to focus on human development</font></b></blockquote>
<p><br><b>The Hindu (New Delhi)</b>
<br><b>November 4, 2000</b>
<p><b>By Our Staff Reporter</b>
<p><b>NEW DELHI, NOV. 3.</b> Mr. I.A. Rehman, Director, Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan, has given a call for correcting human development priorities
in the media by placing political rights in the proper scheme of things.
<p>?The problem with the concept of human development is that we are being
asked at best to concentrate on some less important indices. Without people?s
political rights occupying the center-stage, the human development discourse
is not complete,? he said at a discussion on ?Media and Human Development?
organized by the Nikhil Chakravartty Memorial Foundation this evening.
<p>Referring to equitable sharing of wealth, Mr. Rehman said the fruits
of human development would reach the people only if the producers of wealth
became the masters of the means also. Systems needed to promoted human
development in South Asia are non-existent and that is the reason why there
has been further lowering of development standards. It was the job of the
media, therefore, to ensure that this trend is reversed.
<p>?All over South Asia, States are abdicating their responsibility and
sharpening their tools of coercion,? he said pointing out that the failure
to resolve ethnic issues, misgovernance and abuse of State machinery and
the sway of armed bigots closing all routes to tolerance is threatening
to extinguish democracy and block all routes to human development.
<p>?What is being described as human development today is the real unfinished
agenda of freedom fighters who wanted to liberate the country from colonial
rule,? Mr. Rehman said, adding that media must accept its role as a pillar
of civil society. ?In all matters concerning human development, what is
incidental cannot be allowed to replace what is fundamental,? he added.
<p>Mr. Rehman said the crux of the dilemma which found its echo in the
media also was this talk of human development without empowering the beneficiaries
and insisting that only a few have the right to assess these concerns.
<p>Responding to the issues raised by Mr. Rehman, Ms. Sreelatha Swaminathan,
General Secretary, All India Women?s Federation, said everything in this
country boiled down to the political question. ?The tragedy of today?s
media is that it is trying to depoliticise things which essentially can
have only a political solution,? she said.
<p>Mr. Nikhil De, who is working among the tribals in Jhabua district in
Madhya Pradesh said that ?the common problems of people in South Asia are
the most basic problems?. Ms.Pamela Phillipose, Senior Editor, Indian Express,
said, ?If media is to be an agent of human development, there has to be
eye-mind-heart journalism?.
<p>Summing up the discussion, economist Mr. Arun Ghosh said that the conflict
between the State and civil society was at the root of the human development
problem in South Asia. ?As long as media is dependent on advertisement
revenue, it cannot become independent,? he opined.
<p>Justice P.B. Sawant, Chairman, Press Council of India and Prabhash Joshi,
Editor, Jansatta, paid rich tributes to Nikhil Chakravartty on his 87th
birth anniversary. Mr. Sawant announced that the Nikhil Chakravartty Memorial
Foundation has started functioning with a corpus of Rs. One lakh contributed
by one of its trustees.
<p> </html>
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