There is a saying in the journalism world that crows don't eat crow's meat. This means that if one journalist or newspaper does something that is worthy of criticism, then another journalist or newspaper does not report on it, so to speak. The argument is the same - crows do not eat crow’s meat. We have never asked why he does not eat! Accepted as biblical, accepted. As a result, the injustice of journalists and media never came to the fore. Who will bring? These news are brought by the media. If he decides to keep himself mum, how will he come forward?
No... I didn't sit down to open those injustices of journalists. Whatever I know or have known, I've squeezed it before, I'm still squeezing it! It's not that I didn't write sometimes, but once I wrote directly in this title - this journalist has to stop now! The pressure did not go down. Once I wrote against the unfair journalism of a newspaper and got this threat - I will be killed by being crushed by the wheels of a truck on the streets of Dhaka! That threat came from a journalist leader. Anyway, this is not a story to tell. Let's just say that I dared because there was a brave and true journalist as the Editor in Chief. Otherwise it would not have been possible to do this in a newspaper edited by a crafty journalist.
Back to the main point. I started the writing by writing the title. I said - the crow eats the meat of the crow! Trust me - that's what I mean. I really want other media to reveal the injustice of the newspaper and the deviation of the journalist.
Why? It seems that no one will ask that question today because the benefits of social media are no longer unknown. Media trial now means social media trial. That trial is happening.
Talking about some of the leading media outlets of the country, some of the so-called media boomers were reacting to the six-year-old child of an actress who had just died, in that context which was later circulated as content in multiple media outlets. In the eyes of the common people which is caught as injustice. The child's irony caught in the picture!
But the doom that has been given to journalism by holding a boom in front of a newly motherless child is not acceptable. Why not? Does it need an explanation at all? Don't the child's eyes say that?
Saying we just don't understand. Because we are now running behind a virus called viral content! What's awesome is this viral? How much of an epidemic it has really become - this one picture is proof of that.
People who work in electronic media say one thing a lot - they need a little sound bite! But that requirement is beyond the ethics and customs of journalism? Certainly not.
I would say that the journalist brothers who did the work and the gatekeepers who decided to publish or publish it - did they look the child in the eye? Look at his expression, and try to understand - how wrong the act has been and how much it is contrary to the principles of journalism.
First: Asking someone for his reaction after losing her mother is uncalled for in journalism bringing the child's face to the news again. Anything done without permission is absolutely wrong.
According to the Child Rights International Network's Code of Conduct, images of children may not be published for any purpose. It can only be done if it is for the good of children as a whole, for their rights. Even if you ask only the child, permission must be taken from his parents. The principles of journalism also say that.
Here the child lost his mother. How to get his permission? And it can be said by swearing that the journalists did not take any permission to take this picture! Did not respect the principles of journalism. They did not follow the media's own policy, if at all. Or did not use their own sense-intelligence.
Therefore, the time for our self-realization has truly arrived. It's time for self-criticism. No matter how much we try to squeeze, or squeeze, there is nothing behind the public eye! Nor is it above criticism. If we don't speak up, others will. They now have a huge platform at their disposal - social media which is much more powerful and influential than our so called mainstream media.
We allowed it to happen - in other words, it was our incompetence that made the mainstream media lame.
Now it feels like it's time to make amends. And we know that the media can play a big role in correcting all the deviations of society. So the crow eats the meat of the crow. There may be a total change.
Mahmud Menon: Editor-at-large of Barta24.com and a teacher at Washington University of Science and Technology, Virginia, USA.