The dilemma of Indian media: propaganda vs. human rights

In India, 425 million Indians are estimated to read the newspaper. While the three pages of matrimonial columns constitute its most consulted section, the large distribution of newspapers through different platforms, whether paper or via internet, has given greater exposure and visibility to extreme nationalist principles. The paper examines whether media platforms serve as a handmaiden for nationalist propaganda, or on the contrary, provide an alternative space to combat these principles.

According to Stephen Ward, journalism is one of the core elements of democracy, yet at its worst it can be used as a propaganda tool to manipulate information. On 23 September 2021, a video of the death of a Muslim Assamese – killed and beaten up even after his death by Indian policemen and a government appointed photographer during protests against forced evictions – made headlines. In this precise case, journalists used the expressions of ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ and ‘encroachers’ to justify the dehumanization of individuals. These expressions consolidated a hate dominated ‘banal’ emotional matrix that marks the political ideology of Hindutva. Based on this case, the paper will discuss the key role of media in endangering human rights. While newspapers have an obligation to objectivity, their treatment of the violent death of a Muslim Assamese underlined the use of state propaganda in daily English and Hindi national journals, to dehumanize certain minority communities. What are its implications for the vitality of Indian democracy and its pluralist secular foundations?