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TV responsible for summit letdown?

The television cast a long shadow over the failed India-Pakistan summit at Agra, and many are now wondering if international events need such intense scrutiny while sensitive discussions are on.

Millions in both India and Pakistan were glued to their televisions for two full days, as rival channels gave non-stop coverage of the discussions between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In the absence of any official information about the details of the meetings, barring occasional leaks by some officials, the TV channels mainly vied with one another in dissecting the various issues that have strained ties between India and Pakistan for five decades.

From Kashmir to cricket, they had experts from both the countries to discuss a variety of issues.

N Bhaskar Rao, chairman of the Centre for Media Studies, said by getting people from both sides to debate on different issues, the TV channels had helped in creating a better understanding.

The summit was indeed a TV show, he said, adding this was happening the world over. "Even before the Agra summit commenced, the TV channels had virtually set the agenda for the talks."

Referring to the criticism that the media had raised undue expectations from Agra, Rao, author of Indo-Pak conflict; Controlled mass communication, said: "The media cannot be blamed. It is open governance and transparency that everyone talks about in the 21st century. Earlier, governments manipulated the media and controlled the news. Now the roles have been reversed."

Musharraf exploited the power and reach of TV when he met Indian editors over breakfast on Monday. He confessed that he had been watching TV in between his meetings with Vajpayee.

Not everyone is happy with the television coverage of the summit.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj's interview to TV channels about the goings-on at the summit angered the Pakistanis and prompted President Musharraf to accuse her of trying to black out the discussion over Kashmir.

"The electronic media on both the sides were competing in creating disharmony, suspicion and despondency," said Pakistani peace activist Karamat Ali.

"The intellectuals who spoke to the media failed the people of this subcontinent by sending out negative messages," he said.

Former foreign secretary J N Dixit wished the media had been more restrained. He criticised Swaraj and Musharraf for using the media to push their respective agenda.

"Attention from the talks got diverted once the media became an instrument to push the agenda," he said

Uday Shanker of the 24-hour news channel Aaj Tak defended the TV channels.

"Ours is a 24-hour news channel and the viewers expect us to fill the news vacuum. It was the experts, and not the TV anchors, who analysed the summit," he said.

Uday also flayed the government for its information blackout.

"After two days of talks, the government spokeswoman could only say that there would be a briefing the next day. That should go into the Guinness Book of World Records for brevity of a post-summit briefing."

Indo-Asian News Service

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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