What does it say about a state where people resort to calling press conferences, instead of taking legal options or other due processes? We are talking of the various groups and JACs of aggrieved parties who end up addressing the media rather than lodging formal complaints with the concerned authority. Families take turns in addressing the media with their side of the story on marital discord and extra marital affairs, throw allegations of torture or harassment forgetting that they can take recourse to legal and police measures like filing an FIR in such cases. In fact, every reporter working in the state media today has a necessary work evil in their day to day schedule: that of attending one press conference after another. With an endless array of social organizations, JACs, student groups and other assorted entities in the state, there is no dearth of press conferences with one group or the other announcing their demands or claims or making allegations against those they deem they have been aggrieved by. Calling for press conferences is not something that is confined to Manipur but if one were to keep a count of their number, the state would definitely rank on top of the pile. A scan of the newspapers published in the state will show that every second news report is based on the claims or charges made during the course of a press conference. If someone or a particular agency is being charged with something by a certain person or group, the other person will call another counter press conference. In the process, nothing gets achieved except of course keeping reporters on listening mode. The media and more so, the newspaper and the cable TV channel is what keeps the public abreast of all that is important. But the media alone cannot bring a solution on its own.
To cite some recent patterns here: families of deceased married women alleging that deaths being reported as cases of suicide are actually either murder or that following torture, harassment instead of merely talking to the media should be taking their complaints to the police and to the courts. Even in cases of suicide, when the action of someone has influenced the act of suicide there can be a police case of abetment being filed. Rather than the common norm of addressing the media and airing personal details of marital discord, the families should be knocking on the doors of the police station or at the court with their grievances. But the fact is that in this state, more often people are not being heard or taken seriously by law enforcement agencies and hence have reconciled themselves to being heard for a few minutes. For the brief time that they get to speak to the media, they have an audience who is hearing them out. So far, so good except that the media ends up looking like a convenient whipping object: good to be used as a platform for venting out and then to be unceremoniously dragged into areas where it has no relation whatsoever. The last bit happens when certain groups make allegations which gets reported following their own statements only to be retracted again.
In an ideal situation, the media would have to verify the claims and counter claims that are being made. Unfortunately for the media, ours do not come anywhere near to being an ideal situation. With numerous groups in existence with their own interests to protect on one hand and the limitations of minimal staffing, verification of statements made in the media is easier said than done. The same limitations happen with the unending stream of press releases that comes in to the press. In the backdrop of various state and non-state armed groups and forces operating in the state, there is a veritable media war or rather a propaganda war with the media caught in the middle by virtue of being the news messenger. The press missives from such groups come in with riders on the amount of space and where they should be placed. For the various Government agencies along with NGOs and private companies, the media is only a medium for flaunting their achievements: an ever-ready public relation bandwagon. Hence comes along the all-important question begging for an answer: is the media in the state a convenient tool to be used by various parties for their desired ends or does it have its own individuality?