Media and National Security

National security, as a concept in the contemporary structure of a Nation State, is highly entwined with the facilitation of governance, which is the effective management of national affairs of a country at all levels of its functioning and execution, aimed at maintaining the integrity of the nation and the security of its people. For a country like India, the backbone of its democracy and the propagator of its national interests remains the access to information and expression. The access to information and expression help its people to make responsible objective choices. This access to information has, in turn, allowed the Indian media to play the role of fourth estate and watchdog that holds the government accountable in all its activities, and also functions as the only mode of expression for its people.

Loopholes in Media threatening Indian National Security

In the past one decade there has been a debate that Indian media has shown deplorable insensitivity to both national interests and national security interests. Both the print media and electronic media are put to test under the claim mentioned above. The greater blame is on electronic media that attempts to encapsulate complex national security issues into thirty second sound ‘bites’. The blame emerges from Michael O’ Neill’s observation of media, “Media is more devoted to conflict than to tranquility, and that war is routinely defined as news, while peace is not. What is good for the world, in other words, is not necessarily good for the news business.”

• The insensitivity of the media towards national security is found on following claims:
• Indian media does not have a wider perspective of India’s national security issues.
• Indian media is in no mood to apply brakes or observe self-restraint on its wayward and insensitive treatment of national security issues.
• India media’s analysis and over-analysis of national security issues by groups of former diplomats, generals and academia’s arm chair strategists distort national security perspectives. All these gentlemen can only draw on their outdated experience and none of them are privy to latest inputs. Also in many cases, reticence is their first causality after retirement.
• Indian TV anchors discussing national security issues do not have the political and strategic maturity to discuss national security issues as their Western counter-parts do.
• India TV debates on national security issues tend to cut out development of contrary views and perspectives by imposing commercial breaks, or go hectoring themselves.

The guise of ‘press freedom’ has provided unfettered sway and freedom for non-objective means to Indian media that has put Indian national security secondary from being paramount.

Changes desired in Media

For media to really act as the fourth pillar of democracy vis-a-vis Indian national security should entail following changes. Firstly, the media should upgrade its own knowledge about the various elements of national security. This would help media enlarge its perspective of India’s national security. Observance of self-reliance is mandatory to prevent any damage to Indian national security. Further, while conducting debates and discussion, instead of former diplomats, it is rather advised that the experts such as security analysts or professors expert in international relations and internal security should be invited. This will make the debate academically sound based on correct facts and figures. Only those experts should be inducted into the panel for discussion who have strategic and political maturity, of the same level exhibited by their western counterparts. Lastly, the media should not cut out development of contrary views and perspectives by imposing commercial breaks. A responsible media is the one that the country today needs particularly in light of ever burgeoning threats to Indian national security.

Concluding Remarks

The Government and the media need to come and sit down together and come out with a system of guidelines, self-restraints and other forms of moderation to ensure that the media does not distort or ‘jeopardise’ India’s national security interests.