"Truth is communal"
- Svetlana Alexievich (A Belarusian investigative journalist, who was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".)
And then the night of nuances descended upon us. The machinery went into overdrive. The beast that is online media needed to be fed.
At least 26 tourists had been killed in the afternoon of April 22 by militants in Pahalgam in Kashmir. Videos were out. Bodies scattered across the meadows. Gory, horrific and very difficult to watch. Our colleague said we should not be using them. We decided not to carry any videos from the crime scene.
We decided to be discerning in what we put out there in terms of quotes. Conscious decisions because we live in an age of numbness. And journalists know this well. We won’t fuel communal rage, we said. The horrific act doesn’t need any angles. The perpetrators went on a rampage, killing innocent people. They wanted a particular narrative to be put out there and the media obliged. Terrorists don’t have any religion. Their religion is murder.
In today라이브 바카라 interconnected world, the role of media becomes very crucial in shaping perceptions and narratives and their influence on communalism. We have profound social responsibility when it comes to reporting. Communalism demands that religious identities become tools of political mobilisation.
A tragedy should not be reported as a case of conflicting interests. By night, the cry for war got louder. On television, on social media. Revenge became a keyword. Television anchors, at least a few of them, started to delegitimise everything, including the Kashmir elections that happened last year.
Nothing short of a war would work, they said. Media trials began by the evening of April 22. No restraint was exercised. Political parties saw an opportunity for protests as they always do. Flight prices to Srinagar increased within hours. Tragedy became a business opportunity.
The dilemma for a magazine, then is how do we report a terror attack. Do we resort to speculation? Do we become conspiracy theorists? Or do we retain our humanity in the face of such an inhuman act? How do we act responsibly?
How does one look at an image of a newlywed woman sitting next to the body of her murdered husband? How does one confront a loss like that?
She said they shot him in front of her.
A newsroom is a strange place. We don’t have pauses here. We have to continue to report, to confront such grief, to write about sadness that can’t ever be expressed.
We decided to respect the loss and understand that people who have lost a loved one are in shock and aren’t in a state to be interviewed. Stand and wait until they are ready to talk, we said to the reporters.
Ever since the abrogation of Article 370 that granted Jammu & Kashmir autonomy, the region has suffered violence and blackouts, and a strange restlessness has only grown over the years since 2019.
The Pahalgam attack has made us angry and rightly so.
The woman who lost her husband didn’t deserve any of this. Revenge is not what we need. We need answers to questions about security lapses in the region despite warnings that had been issued about a possible attack. We need dignity in reporting. We need to stop the noise and ask questions that matter, investigate more and not become warmongers.
In the past few years, 바카라 has covered Kashmir extensively, but with a different lens. A lens that looks at the resilient silence of Kashmir, especially after the abrogation of Article 370. From our very first issue to the next one, we will continue to unravel Kashmir라이브 바카라 truth.
Let라이브 바카라 not prescribe behaviour guidelines to Kashmiris as the media. Many have lived in fear for a long time and have continued to suffer from the violence. Let라이브 바카라 not brand people based on religion.
The woman sitting next to her dead husband라이브 바카라 body must make us question violence and not instigate it further because a loss can’t be avenged. It can only be shared and understood.
