Censorship : Do we need watch guards to dictate what we see?
A reality show in India, based on asking its participants, very pointed questions, as they are hooked to a lie detector machine – has come under fire. From politicians in particular. Since then every media channel, politician or anyone who could get some mileage or not off this, is slapping the front lines with their opinions.
TimesNow, like everyone else has not been far behind and brought in Rajeev Khandelwal (the host of the show under controversy), Smriti Irani (politician who was the poster woman for Saas-Bahu serials) among others to debate on the issue.
So, what was supposed to be a debate, went off track to a boom box contest, to briefly becoming a pissing contest to ending up somewhere in a hole, no one was quite sure where it was.
Why have debates when, its purely a “I am always right, you are always wrong” hardheadedness?
Meanwhile, the question still remained floating somewhere. Was the game show right to use its freedom of speech to approach such controversial topics on Prime Time Television? Or the politicians now have a tool to ride on, on the pretext that the society is not mature enough to handle such shows.
Though no one raised the question in the debate, I would have loved to hear upon. Isn’t what is on television represent what we are as an individual and as a society overall?
Here’s the video (may take a minute or two to start)… Chime in your thoughts…
Tip : Vijay
Tags: Bhawna Somaya, Censorship, Debate, Rajeev Khandelwal, Sach ka Saamna, Smriti Irani, Television, Video
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I KNOW this is totally off course but I am getting nightmares already!!! What is this?? ha ha
The PFC Guerrilla mantra : Land > Shoot > Takeoff details coming soon.
Become a PFC Guerrilla and create mayhem… details coming soon
Very soon, PFC will be entering Guerrilla mode… only the strong shall survive! details coming soon
Oh well, gotta wait for it to hit us….
WTF are you talking bout?
Remove those dark glasses and look around. And if you still can’t see anything, it’s time to visit an eye specialist!
Aarti ji,
Itna gussa kyun? Aap is duniya se khafa khafa lagti hain thoda!
What are the news channels complaining about? Sach ka Saamna has the contestents being questioned about personal issues, with their consent, unlike the zillions of news channels in India today, who are invading into people’s privacy, without their approval, believe celebrities are public celebrities, so they deserve no private space or respect, can be spoken about any shit as felt like, things are taken for granted as the “creative” faces of these shows/articles/content do not come in front..
What the show is doing is so much smaller and insignificant compared to the news channels which is tiltating the audience with cheap stuff reporting like which celebrity is doing whom, or might be wanting to do whom…
What are people crying about? isn’t this what news channels have been doing all this while? TIMES group, which organises this debate, are possibly the biggest carriers of shit thoughts…. go through Indiatimes.com, the same guys who come up with ONE BRILLIANT concept concepts like lead india, also have a site which on an everyday basis has a set of sex obssessed writer possibly jerking away to glory, making a list of “TOP 25 ACTRESSES TO BED”, “25 PLUSH LIPS FOR A HOT KISS” “B@@B TREATS AND SHIT LIKE THAT… if its also your day, then you would find a morphed picture of Kareena in her undies or in a dropping towel and katrina covering her modesties in banana leaves, and of course thes epictures are taken off, within a few days cuz they are MORPHED… for all the PORN SITES and Savita Bhabhis being banned, the “NEWS” groups are intelligently tiltaitng people to exactly what the censor boards were responsible for stopping…. News reporting makes sure that they play the cheap card, they know the rape scenes in Bandit Queen having a nude seema biswas might have never even once aroused a person, while the censor board banned it, while cheaply filmed Behan ka rape scene with no complete nude scenes, but loads of cleavage and tearing clothes are BOUND to get the fancy of audience and the censors do not ban it, cuz “nothing was shown”…the photo galleries are completely filled with such pictures, and hey I am not complaining till they dont invade into people’s privacy, but morphed pctures??????
Then you have websites reporting news on the new MMS scandal, and also providing you the links where they can be found… where these can be downloaded, and public’s view on the same… WTF???? its a scandal and thats why its news… the reason why there is an unrest is that the people in the MMS DO NOT WISH TO BE SHARING THIS IN PUBLIC… WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN BY PROVIDING LINKS???? Isn’t there any norms or rules on how the enws is supposed to be reported in????? The other day there was a letter drafted by Nikhil Chinappa, against the Tamanna MMS news reporting, and the reporter replying that never had they ever gotten so many responses as the they got for the TAMANNA news, SEX sells and THEY WILL CONTINUE TO PUBLISH IT….. cheap ass??? I dont know, but people do read other news, but yes they react cuz they are outraged by the way the news was reported… this doesnt mean the paper or the internet link has a new found popularity, but you ass, people who were regularly reading you, and because of which you had this position to report the news, are condemning you not to be such a jackass… IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE TRPs went up .. and even if it did, compare these TRPs to how many of these viewers paid any attention to the commercials that were aired, and you should know that these TRPs are worthless, they commanded no “monetary” value at the “selling space” area.
The worst of them all is, that all these keep happening, cuz the news reporting fraternity, know that they have the position, the podium and the space to point, to accuse, to frame, to talk shit about things in public against anybody while the other person cannot retaliate, cuz they dont have the same space… mind you this includes the CELEBRITIES, who possibly are affected the most…. Not an ardent supporter of any specific celebrities that are going to be mentioned …. Preeti Zinta has shown her severe displeasure about 2 writers creating a hobnob out of her personal relationships… and she’s justified in asking for their dismissals, everybody does know Preeti Zinta, while the 2 would remain scot free, similarly Amisha PAtel had raised some fury about an article that made her sound “old” which maybe hilarious to us, but in her profession she might need to take complete care of such stereotyping, the rest can be read off google, but the point is, there are so many nusance reporting happening these days? Don’t these people realise they are the ones who DIRECTLY AFFECT THE SOCIETY??? THE NEWS CHANNELS ARE NO LONGER ABOUT PASSING INFORMATION AND HELPING PEOPLE FORM THEIR OPINIONS AND KNOW THEIR RIGHTS, BUT HAV TURNED INTO PEOPLE WHO WILL FEED, FORCE AND PUSH THEIR THOUGHTS INTO YOUR HEAD??? They end up deciding people’s fates and destinies, they know it, but dont they feel that they should use it RESPONSIBLY??? Accorinding to Media today, Amitabh Bachchan can do nothing wrong, absolutely nothing wrong, and even he does, him and his family remains superstars, while Come what may Mohd Azhar, will always be redarged as the BLEMISHED and FALLEN former Indian captain, irrespective of whatever good he may do… and at some point they realise it and try to protest and weed “such” things out but its like the case of the thief making the theft and then joining the protests against the robbers…
Crude tiltaing news about, how a minor was raped by her servant, before getting murdered, and how 70 men tried to molest 2 girls near a hotel, supported by pictures of clothes being ripped… come one, what were these journos doing then??? even before we can blame the assholes who were standing and watching the women being stripped in public in Patna, and “feasting” their eyes, we need to question all these journalists, who were making sure that this content is also covered prime time and shown over and over again to a million pairs of eyes who could ve never seen this.. make sure that this video is supported by hard voiced discussion, a tight lipped news anchor, and Women’s rights people talking, and throwing up lines like “outrage blah blah”, but the video will continue to play for the next 6 hours… and then blame it on the “journalistic license” the news channel in the garb of reporting news at you, are actually giving you a nudge by the arm, winking and throwing a dirty smile on your face at the same time…
The news channels wont accept this either.. they know theyt are safe, they know they hold the Mics, the stage, the cameras, the timings, everything….Times Now, where the debate is happening, doesnt look like Arnob Goswami realises that its a debate show, same goes to a lot of senior jounalists, who were rising stars at one point. The impression of these shows is that the HOST COMMANDS the show, and its HIS SHOW, not a debate, he’s got all the rights to provocate and point fingers, with the excuse of being a SENIOR journalist and the show being his show.. he can act a used or shocked or sarcastic or pass comments as he feels like, and behave like yes the others are answereable to him, while he holds the supreme rights of passing judgements…I have seen this quite often across news channels, the Senior reporters just shoot down any voice that starts to raise against the content of these news channels, saying there are serious content aired which the speaking person possibly doesn’t watch and its his problem…. wierd, that nobody, has seen those shows… its again back to the example of saying “we have lead india campaign, thats so good” while making sure there are zillions of other fkd up articles, posts, shows, debates…. that are being aired… for TRPs…
The worst of em all… ask them and they cleanly say “the WEST is even worse” … like all the answers that we get .. “the oscars also does the same, the paparazzzi also does the same, the adverisments in west are the same” ….WHO THE FUCK EVER SAID THAT WEST WAS RIGHT??? WHO THE FUCK EVER SAID OSCARS ARE THE BENCHMARK OF GREAT MOVIES, WHO EVER SAID THAT THE WESTERN MEDIA REPORTING ARE OF HIGH CLASS AND LEVELS??? ARE WE WAITING TO GET SECRETLY FILMED TAPES OF CELEBRITIES NOW??? WE ALREADY ARE HAVING THEM, BUT DO WE NEED THEM TO BE IN OPEN NOW??? ARE WE WAITING FOR A FEW PEOPLE TO DIE ON TELEVISION WHILE THE REPORTERS WERE FILMING THEM CONTINUOUSLY???…. THERE ARE ZILLION RIGHT THINGS ABOUT THE WEST THAT WE NEVER APE… THE ROAD RULES, THE CIVIC PATTERN, LAW AND ORDER, THE WAY POLICITICIANS BACHCHA LOG DONT GET THEIR WAY DONE, THE JUDICICARY BEING UNBIAS EVEN TO THE GOVERNEMENT, THE BRIBE AND THE CHALTA HAI CULTURE BEING VERY VERY MINIMUM, THE 911, 311, 401K (even if all of it IS NOT perfect, still much better than what we have in India) but somehow there is never an attempt to ape these…. all we want to copy is “PAPARAZZI and the PAPARAZZI LIFESTYLE”…
Coming back to the question that these people were discussing on the show, the morality and how these shows will affect the audience as they are being aired prime time… haha… with the news channels hogging up all possible time slots across all forms of medias, we have no reason to worry about these shows…. the news channels are ensuring to kill the system of respect and privacy anywhich ways everywhere… a couple of years back i realised that most of the days if i was getting bored and there was nothing interesting being played on television, I used to surf the news channels, i was not following any dedicated show, movie, events, anything, but just toggle around news channels… and here is where it scares me… its not going to be too much time away, when things are going to invade into each of our personal lives as well… directly by covering us all up … or indirectly .. by making sure that we see, hear and speak only what they have to offer and we remain in their mercies…
After Sarkar Raj was released, an article printed a story which said that RAmu and AB had parted ways. And incredibly stated that when contacted Ramu and AB had denied this. Now when the concerned parties themselves had denied, then there is no story. But this idiot went ahead and printed the article.
Preity Zeinta has been crying hoarse since long that media has been doing dadagiri. If a celebrity does not respond, then they go ahead and print anything. THe celebrity is forced to revert with corrections. Trouble is that any celebrity has not yet sued a media house.
PS – You have said everything that I could think of. Good points. Totally agree. Media on a whole is cheap and thrives on sensationalising petty events. Indian media has gone one step further and has learnt the art of dreaming up events, doctoring facts, etc.
Phootooey! Watch-guards it seems!
IMHO this is all planted PR. Controversies are being created to spike conversations and in effect the show becomes popular. Coming to the cinema angle of this story, I am really worried if Rajeev will return to films soon after this. Impressive debut with Aamir. Cant wait for Peter gaya kaam se. I wonder what Raj kumar Gupta is doing these days. He left me gasping for more after Aamir.
PS that will make 1 whole blog on its own
i dun understand what that farooqui guy was trying to say spreading evil/bad…i mean how in the fuck confessing truth would spread evil…i dun think old men will get encourage to screw young gals just cos some old guy made it sound cooler…BTW didnt Smriti Irani look constipated in the whole debate?
I dont regard Timesnow as a good news channel. The same topic aired on NDTV had a good debate with Jyotiraditya Scindia leading the discussion. Unanimous opinion was that there should be some level of censorship required, not necessarily for this show similar to movies.
Having said that I dont think even that is required.
PS
Wow.. good write up. I can understand your frustration burning the screen. You are absolutely right in whatever you said, especially aping the WEST for its good things. With the social fabric in our country, India would be a much greater power if we accept and the follow the good practices from the WEST (all that you have mentioned + more)
Regards TV channels, there is only solution. People who have access to internet and other neutral sources for information should stop watching these channels. After years of frustration watching the same news from morning to evening, that is what I have started doing…
@ sammy .. yeah wanted to make it my own blog, yet a response to the same… never written on PFC too often… dunno how to create my blog yet
@ vasu, unfortunately it makes you a little flabergasted to see morphed pics and gutterish stories…being honest.. more than enjoyin the “aw so gushing kareena in modest clothes” or see some farce MMS being attributed to Tamanna… i feel more insecure that this might be the price I might pay if I or one of my close ones would ever like to dream big and be a celebrity … though that may never happen, but the insecurity does seep in…
As regards Sach ka Saamna, the participants are trading their secrets for money. And if the show’s a hit, then thats what we all want to see. So nobody has any cause for concern.
As regards the protest against the show, most of the protest is politically inspired to gain brownie points. The news channels should have done well to ignore it. But they didnt. THey are the ones who need the bakchodi. Of course its a different matter that Pankaj Advani does it best.
And as regards the censorship issue itself, I would say censorship should exist to provide the ratings X, A, G, etc but not to suggest cuts. It helps the audiences to decide beforehand, whether they should take their children or wife/husband or friends to the movie. What they take out of it should be left to them.
Until the time that the countrymen do not take to violent reactions to what they see on the screen, I guess censorship is needed. You see there are very few people who wish to communicate with their keyboards. There are a lot many who communicate with stones and swords.
All I have to say that we all not sheep to be herded by the so called shepherds and watchdogs from the apparent wolves . . . The wolves are not out there but in the herd under sheep’s clothing probably put byh the shepherds for their own end. . . The shepherds shear the wool of the sheep. We must not let em do that to us.
Hope that analogy made some sense
I don’t understand why people watch news channels anymore!!
I am of the opinion that there should be absolutely no form of censorship whatsoever for any medium…be it cinema, television, newspapers etc..you name it. Material that is deemed inappropriate for children should be given an adult certificate.
The reason I’m saying this is that I feel that, as an adult why should somebody else decide for me what I should be watching and whats I shouldn’t. If I’m considered smart enough to vote for a government at the center and smart enough to choose the life partner of my choice, am I not smart enough to decide what i should and shouldn’t watch??
Also, if certain sections feel offended by the content of a certain film/TV show/magazine…they have the full freedom to NOT WATCH/READ it. Why should the material be censored just because some sections take offence to it.
@PS
I can fully understand your frustration at the kind of cheap journalism that most of the Indian News channels are indulging in. I have a simple solution to your woe. IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT THEN DON’T WATCH IT !!
Now, if you watch the news on BBC, you might happen to notice how every news reporter or correspondant has a neutral tone to his voice while reporting a story..however sensational or horrific the story may be. The reason i feel is that the BBC believes in the basic journalistic ethic that the media is suppose to report an event, not pass a judgement on it.
The point I’m trying to make is that most of the people in our country who have access to these Indian news channels also have access to the BBC,and yet they prefer to watch Indian news channels. So I’m stressing on my point once again that let people decide for themselves watch they want to watch. I see no reason for censorship in this or in any other case. People are smart enough to decide for themselves what they should watch and what they shouldn’t.
If you don’t like don’t watch ..that’s the mantra…those who wants to enjoy porn they too have their own means,Internet.They just type what they want to see.You can’t guard individuals.Let’s parents do their job of guarding their children.Adults are mature enough n they know it very well what to watch and what not to.Let’s decide ourselves and switch off the television if we don’t find it ethically correct and not force any TV show or production house to shut their shop.
@ RAUNAQ AND ASHISH,
I completely agree with your points, within a large space of what we are discussing… though I am mentioning a few pointers that I can think of .. in my following replies…
For everybody… these are my thoughts… not to offend anybody.. please do post in your thoughts on the same….
And yeah, I guess I need to learn how to create my own blog …
And yes its open for discussion, as I think censorship should be
I agree with you till we talk of news and news channels as “news providers” …. however if you try to see things in a broader manner, you will see that its ultimately the media which indirectly frames and directs the society… think about it, if we were never told that salman khan is a frenzied man, who tries to bash up reporters and bang Aish Rai’s doors and xyz, you think any of us would have ever cared of what he is or what kind of person he is? There are several other examples of such incidents…. dont we know how news would have broadcasted if tomorrow “rebel cricket wing” ICL signs up Azhar to assist kapil Dev? We how what will ICL will be treated…
Its not about entertainment Raunak, news is much more than that, and thats why we cannot leave things at “don’t watch it” (though I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU THAT THE DAY WE STOP WATCHING, THEY STOP AIRING)…. the channels continuously air shows which are healthy till a point of time, but like its said, too much of everything can be real bad… and thats what happens…. every electoral process is again AND AGAIN discussed as “hindus” “muslims” … with great difficulty people get convinced out of religious identities to accepting people normal folks, and they get a new identity “VOTEBANKS” … how one section did vote a party and THATS WHY THEY LOST… please dont tell me that 20% population did not vote a party so they lost.. crap … common man 20% or 80% did not vote him, its the signs of common issues and problems…as person who votes with my concerns and what I think is good (which is not necessarily good maybe) I would not like to generalized as Votebanks…
We have topics discussed over and over again, with flares more than an open mind… and we also keep coming up with topics, that raises flares up further… we have relious identities… topics on Old School Thought vs new, men vs women, divorce vs marriage, Neuclear vs non nuclear, US vs rest,.. what more? Very soon we might start having fights over uniforms vs no uniforms, shoes vs chappals, two wheeler vs 4 wheelers, scooters vs bikes, rotis vs rice…. Silly as they may sound, so we can already see things moving this way… everybody does have some prejudice against something, but do we need to keep giving too much of importance and harp over these things….. YES FOR A HEALTHY DEBATE, but if it raises unnecessary thought processes and flares do we need them??? Do we need them to be played over and over to incite or create silos and stereotypings and leading to an alienated thoughts
With things like these played over and over again … every person, new TV follower or an old one… continuously has these things going on in his mind… with a sense of Insecurity …. “m a brahmin”, “he is a SC” He is a Quasi” “ohh these babajis are ancient primeval people” “modernity means crap culture”, “oh rich people can’t think about society”, … Maybe I was a super dull kid, who was idiotic and no clue of life, but my first brush with “minority” comment came when Azhar said he was being targeted as he belongs to a “minority community”. Agreeing that I was foolish kid… I never understood what he meant that time… the maximum I could think of was that maybe he meant that since he is from Andhra Pradesh, he means the minority of 4 “southern” states as compared to the rest of the “north” … when finally papers kept repeating the lines and news headlines made it clear what he meant… I was not able to relate it for quite a long time (and maybe that’s why there will be a lot of Azhar mentions in my examples, it still strikes a wierd chord to me)… suddenly things that my schools/college never taught me, my parents never taught me, the society I lived in made no mentions, my friends who were of all mixed set, never bothered… was suddenly implanted into my head permanently … I am pretty sure every kid now will know these lines of separation even before they figure out the square root of 4.
Serials, soaps, movies… are a different genre.. you can and should stop watching them when you know that these are foolish, however, NEWS governs the society, they are the eyes, ears and mouths of our society…. They are the single reason that we know what happened in Ayodhya, we know what happened in BSE, we trace what happened at Godhra, and then in Gujrat, what is going on in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and then assess whats going on and what is the requirement of the day…. For people living miles away from these places these are definitely key factors that anybody thinks about while deciding and voting for what they think is a “better life”…, not just about differences of people, important subjects like how any occurance can affect our position in the society… socially, financially, economically… things need to be shown up responsibly … NEWS are the single representation that we have to connect thoughts points and society …. Pushing one side of stories IMPAIR the decision that the people make….
Not trying to make the WEST as targets of blames, but another prime example that I can think on top of my mind is that currently consulting firms have come up with plans for “DISASTER MANAGEMENT POST 21st DEC 2010” .. its believed Mayan Calendar ends on this day, predicted doomsday, world comes to an end bluh bluh… and companies are paying HUGE amounts to make sure that they are “SAFE” …. When I heard this initially I laughed my head out… they external consultant who was sharing this news with me was a little sheepish and still tried to talk me into the thought… later I met his boss over lunch, and the discussion came up again … and this time the BOSS created another one, but this MADE ABSOLUTE SENSE… he called things like how FEAR and PANIC can create situations where people start to sell their holdings in the companies, as they would want to live a good life in this short while (trust me its true… as much as people go to astrologers) and would like ready cash, and how this can result into another slowdown … this may create a huge situation where market holding of company may come down, and the market values will be deterred, and YES this is worrying even the Wall Street …..maybe created right on the lunch table…. But there was this HUGE difference, cause it was spoken and handled in so much more of responsible way …. The difference of talking the same topic … but with sensationalism and keeping it normal and mediocre…
So many times that I have been fooled looking at news channels announcing, bandhs, riots, showing stones being pelted, repeatedly, that I was scared to step out of my house, cursing people, and then walk out to find that … life still is normal… yes there are tensions, but its not as big as they are made to sound, and these need to addressed than creating negative mindsets…
Citing that as an everyday example… NEWS is that single common parameter that spreads across the society, and there needs to be a lot more emphasis on the RESPONSIBILITY they carry … its not about “what people should watch and what they shouldn’t” but definitely the treatment needs to be taken care of.
Just the way, parents should talk to their kids about sex… to help them to understand and support them if things don’t go the way as thought (we know a wrong sex escapade can lead to psychological depressions, irrespective of guys or girls) but its important the way they treat it, have crude jokes and talking or making out in front of kids is no ideal way as we all might agree (I hope), we can always say that the Kids could have closed their eyes… and then again talking of things person to person and making sense out of it, trying to address issues, is possibly the way to do it… it’s the treatment…
Going back to censorship…The need is not a “oh you can’t see this, though I can and I decide” censorship.. but we need to have an INTELLIGENT and RESPONSIBLE censor board which governs these patterns… as much as we need law and order, police and government in the society… we need them till we start living in the utopia that things are always going to be good … When we mention “freedom to” we mean our freedom to do things…. But we are not implying, that because I am adult I have the rights to get into activities that can bother others… What Sanjay Dutt pointed out once in KBC, admitting his AK 47 episode, that he learnt the hard way… not to take his “freedom” for granted… it’s the same situation in a much different manner when we talk of censorship…
We need to have continuous reforms to the censorship, DECIDED BY THE PEOPLE AS THEY DECIDE TO VOTE AND CHOOSE THEIR GOVERNMENT, PEOPLE BEING GIVEN A CHANCE TO SAY IF THEY WISH TO SEE PAANCH, BLACK FRIDAY, AND WATER…. AND IF THEY FEEL SHOWING MOLESTATION VIDEOS ON AIR IS NOT WHAT THEY WANT… … or as a consensus of all the film makers, big or small… and move forward…. Though its as much needed as we need “creative directors” to shows… they help understand and better the show… not taboo or ban things without a reason…
I am not a pro censorship man …. As much as I not a pro war guy, so not a complete pro army man, but what I hold is respect for both these parties… the army seems to have always kept the respect high with their ways of being RESPONSIBLE, even if they have their issues and differences, keeping it to themselves… unlike the current pattern censor board which has continuously shown their unintelligence and idiocy, with several Bans and questions on brilliant art forms, while upkeeping nonsense, cause in books there are no mentions about them…
Open to all comments …