The ethics of journalism

Covid-19 did not just spring up a slew of health issues, but also brought people face-to-face with our societal imperfections. The visuals of migrant labourers traversing barefoot on treacherous terrains in the lockdown nudged a screenwriter back to journalism; a profession he had quit in 2014. “I put all things on hold pertaining to films, and stopped attending film production meetings.

The mass exodus of migrants from metropolitan cities and the current state of TV journalism, triggered this decision,” says Mayank Saxena, Executive Editor, MediaVigil.com, a video news platform in Hindi that uses the latest technology supplemented with data.

“I left TV journalism for screenwriting because it was annoying to see how the news was being presented, and had reached an understanding that there was no authentic TV journalism,” says Saxena, 36, who wrote the dialogues of the Hindi dubbed Kolar Gold Fields. The film was originally made in Kannada language in 2018.

Saxena is also a vocalist and percussionist. But owing to the migrant crisis, he decided to build the video platform at the already established MediaVigil by journalist Pankaj Srivastava in Noida. “You like news, but you don’t see news. So, what to do in such a situation? This very lack of depth along with the absence of simple language across news channels further drove me to delve into journalism again,” says Saxena, 36, a former student of computer science.

“I am an out and out tech guy. Digital technology excites me. I started learning about how new tools of technology could be integrated into news out of hobby. Here, at MediaVigil, we use the best graphic interface with authentic research and data using digital technology.” The ongoing farmer’s protests figure among the platform’s top stories. Saxena informs that they star ted reporting in September ever since the Bharat Bandh was issued.

“We are also doing a series on minorities titled ‘Minorities Matter’, about the internal conflicts of Muslims, Sikhs, the LGBTQ community, among others, in order to have a healthy discourse on the issues surrounding them. Similarly, there is another series, called Jat na Jat, which attempts to mitigate caste barriers.” According to him, it is crucial to save journalism as press freedom is needed to save democracy. “We are at this juncture where we need to give all to this fight to save the freedom of the press.

It is very much possible we won’t be able to save this freedom, but to give up without putting up a fight is not the apt thing to do,” he shares. Next, Saxena wants to raise funds for the non-profit platform. “Since its launch in April 2019, the team has been working without any salaries. It is rare to find a dedicated team like this today. It is time to build an independent media with the help of crowdfunding. We want funding so that the journalist can work without difficulty, and do stories on underreported issues across India,” he says.