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The Great Indian Media Slugfest: The curious case of ‘The Cannister’, morals & ethics

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Shillong, Dec 13: Amidst a serious breach of security in the Parliament on Wednesday when two people jumped into the Well of the House from the visitors’ gallery and hurled yellow-coloured smoke canisters during the proceedings of the House, a different drama was being played outside the Parliament among the journalists as they scrambled to report on the shocking incident.

While two individuals were causing a commotion inside the Lok Sabha, two other individuals were also protesting outside the Parliament with same yellow-coloured smoke canisters.

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As TV journalists rushed to get the first visuals of the cannisters and the protesting individuals, who were promptly arrested, one of the journalists got hold of one of the cannisters and so began the ‘tamasha’ of journalism in the national capital.

When one of the journalists was holding and reporting live on the cannister, other journalists interjected him on air and demanded that he hand them the canister as he had reported ‘enough’. When the journalist did not give in and continued to report, other journalists started heckling him. When that did not work, they literally pounced on him to snatch the cannister.

This drama lasted several minutes with hardly anyone able to hold onto the cannister as the venue turned into a slugfest. There was no distinction whether male or female, everyone was after ‘the cannister’.

Worst of all, all of this was live on camera!

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The video of the same has gone viral, with sharp reactions from several quarters. Many have criticized the media persons for fighting over ‘The Cannister’ instead of reporting on the breach of security while others questioned how the cannister found its way to a TV reporter when it was a vital piece of evidence. The social media has exploded with media persons tagged as jokers, clownery, Peak Indian Media, Lowest of Media, and a host of other names.

One of the tweets said: “These jokers were fighting for the cannister instead of reporting about the event.” Another said: The lowest of media @_pallavighosh snatching the Cannister from reporter of @TV9Bharatvarsh Why play with evidence there could be finger marks ,Residual gas for Forensic analysis.”

Other tweets read: “Peak Indian media. Praan jaaye magar smoke cannister nah jaaye”, “Security gayi tel lene, Indian media is fighting for smoke canisters”, “Priorities of Indian media changed from a security breach to owning a Tear gas cannister…”, “‘Pallavi ji, don’t do this!’ Godi Media showing to the world their standard of journalism- fighting over a piece of evidence on Live TV! Is there any depth of shamelessness that Godi media journalists still haven’t explored?”

Irrespective of the what the tweets says, one important point that most pointed out was how did the cannister, an evidence, found its way to the journalists. What were the security agencies doing and if any action will be taken on the lapses for ‘The Cannister’ episode.

More importantly, how did the security breach in the Parliament became a secondary subject over ‘The Cannister’.

But what the episode did establish was the hardcore competition in the business of news reporting, where the journalists can go to any lengths to get to the story – right or wrong, and also cast a shadow on their mortality and ethical standards.

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