For a reporter, listening to voices from the ground is the most exciting part of the job. It doesn’t matter what beat you’re assigned, whether politics, environment, crime, or civic issues, or what event you’re asked to cover, whether elections or protests; it’s always the conversations on the ground and the story they help us build that matter. This is what I look forward to while reporting.
When I was assigned to cover the farmers’ agitation, which has stretched on for over two months now to become a winter of discontent, I was naturally looking forward to speaking to as many people on the ground as possible and filing reports.
Unfortunately, due to recent events and coverage by certain sections of the media, especially biased coverage and even fake news, even starting a conversation with the farmers has become increasingly difficult at the protest sites at the Singhu border and Tikri border in Delhi.
Earlier, for all my other stories, I would simply establish contact with the respondent and begin a conversation. But the farmers at the protest sites are wary and distrustful of reporters. In several instances over the past few weeks, I have found myself cornered and questioned. I have been asked to prove that I do not belong to that section of the media which allegedly misrepresents the farmers. Their aversion to some media houses is so-deep rooted that convincing them to speak to me has become one of my biggest challenges on the ground. After all, what is a report without voices?
And if I do manage to successfully convince them to speak to me, that’s not the end of the story. I get calls or WhatsApp messages from them the next morning demanding links of the story published — proof that I indeed stuck to my word.
Once, at the Tikri border, after an extensive conversation with a group of farmers, I sought permission to photograph them. They agreed, but only on the condition that I would allow them to photograph my press card so that they can be certain that their photos won’t be misused. “Majboori hain madam (We are helpless, Madam),” they told me. Even at the Singhu border, where posters of certain channels and anchors, all personae non gratae, have been put up, the same challenges stare at us.
However, once trust is established, the farmers are friendly and generous. They have offered me fruits, tea, and even langar.
It is not just reporters; in some instances, the mere sight of a camera makes the farmers uncomfortable. In some places, the protesters have prevented photojournalists from entering the protest site.
The most common complaint from the farmers is that “the media” is not writing or showing their version of the story. Their primary complaint is largely with sections of the television media. But their distrust of the “media” — which is as an all-encompassing entity that includes print, digital and television media; sober and sensational coverage; factual reportage and fake news — in general has become problematic.
We live in a polarised world where many inhabit echo chambers. While the farmers’ fears and concerns are understandable given some of the distorted coverage of their protests and the fake news phenomenon, it is also becoming increasingly difficult for us reporters to just do our job.
