ELLEN BARRY - Conversation With Former Political Editor of Open Magazine Hartosh Singh Bal
Hartosh Singh Bal, the political editor of Open magazine, announced on
Wednesday that he had received a letter of termination. It was the second
high-profile sacking within the Indian media in the space of a month; in late
October, Siddharth Varadarajan resigned as editor-in-chief of The Hindu, an
influential daily newspaper, when the paper’s owners told him he would be
replaced. In Mr. Varadarajan’s case, it became clear that disputes
over political coverage had been simmering under the surface. His replacement
told reporters that political bias had crept into the paper’s coverage under
Mr. Varadarajan, saying that the news desk had been under orders not to run
stories about Narendra Modi, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate
for prime minister, on the front page. Mr. Varadarajan disputed the
allegation. Mr. Bal said that his letter of termination offered no reason
for the decision, but that the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, which owns the magazine,
had offered him generous severance pay in exchange for leaving quietly. He also
noted that his departure had been preceded by the publication of an article
sharply critical of both Mr. Modi and of Rahul Gandhi, the vice president of
the ruling Congress Party.
India Ink spoke to Mr. Bal about his departure from Open
magazine and the pressures the Indian media has encountered in covering this
election cycle.
Q. This news follows closely on the heels of the sacking of The
Hindu’s editor. Do you think there are parallels between these two situations?
A.Look, there is a great lack of transparency in what happens
within the media. I can speculate about what has happened; I know I have done a
certain series of articles. They were well received. I have not received any
feedback from within the publication that anything I have done was problematic.
Then I hear I should leave the organization. My editor says he opposes the
decision. My publisher says he opposes the decision. What happened can best be
answered by the management of this group.
Q. Who owns your magazine, and do they have a political
allegiance?
A. Not as far as I know directly. The current chair’s father
was part of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and was an M.P. [member of Parliament]
in the Congress government. Whether this chairman has the same political leanings,
I have no idea. This can best be answered by the management.
Q. Did you ever get explicit guidance on how to cover politics?
A. On a large scale, in Indian media, it is quite common. It
hasn’t happened here. I made it quite clear that I would not accept anything
like that. Whether there was any communication between the editor and owner,
that can best be answered by the editor.
Q. Which is more dangerous to write about, Congress or Modi?
A. Good question. If I knew what the precise reasons were for
the ownership to ask me to leave, I could give you a better answer. I have
written enough that would not be pleasant for either. In my case, one thing I will tell you is that everything
I’ve written has gone through an editorial process. If they felt there was a
problem, there should have been a discussion between the editor and owner. From
what he specifically told me, he doesn’t even support it. He did make it quite
clear to me that he would not support a termination or be party to it. I can’t
speak for him personally. If I have reporters under me writing stories that go
through me, and if somebody were to question them and ask me to remove them
from the organization, they’d have to go over my dead body.
Q. Do you feel betrayed?
A. Everyone has to make their own call. I know what my own call
would be.
Q. Do you think that your colleagues are under pressure for the
same reasons?
A. This is a particularly divisive and important election in
this country, and I think the role the media plays is very, very important. I
do think that overall there is an attempt to stifle voices which are
independent. I have never seen the media so divided within itself, taking
sides, being so partisan, even when it is clear where the funding and support
is coming from.
Q. Did this happen in earlier election cycles?
A. I am sure there must have been a certain kind of pressure.
The ability to influence media, the attempt to do so — that is changing
rapidly. I think it is worse now. There’s a kind of fixation on managing
elections, which influences both Congress’s and B.J.P.’s approach to this
election. Managing the media is a big part of that.
Also see:
Hartosh Singh Bal: Those Who Do Not Want to Bury Modi.
Commentators warming up to Modi forget that his decade in power has seen the
logic of the 2002 violence pursued by other means. Those who like Narendra
Modi, ...
Indira Gandhi
killers families 'honoured' by ...Nov 01, 2013
(Hartosh Singh Bal). Rajdeep Sardesai - Confront these painful
truths about communalism: ...whether you travel to the outskirts of Ahmedabad
to Citizen Nagar to meet 2002 riot victims living next to a garbage dump, or to
the ...
Book review:
The Unending Nostalgia of ...Sep 06, 2013
Reviewed by Hartosh Singh Bal. No history of Punjab has been written in 125 years, as
Rajmohan Gandhi observes in his introduction, even though much has been written
about subjects such as the Partition or Sikhs.
Gujarat 2002:
Will We Ever Know the Truth?May 23, 2012
The one thing this SIT report is not is a closure - either for
victims of the Gujarat violence or for the investigation of
what actually transpired in 2002 and the role Modi played as head of the state
government: Hartosh Singh Bal
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, The Industrialization of the Mind
The rise of the tycoons Economic crisis and changing media ownership in central Europe
The rise of the tycoons Economic crisis and changing media ownership in central Europe
