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Three days after Sunita Shakya, a non-resident Nepali, wrote on the CNN website a blog slamming the manner in which the Indian media had been covering the earthquake in Nepal, comments against Indian media continued to trend on social media on Monday.
#GoHomeIndianMedia has been trending on Twitter, with as many as 128,000 tweets posted as of May 3 — ironically, a day that is observed as the World Press Freedom Day.
Several comments accused the Indian press, especially television channels, of arrogance and of being more interested in glorifying the Indian government’s rescue efforts than reporting the devastation on the ground.
“Thanks to tons of reporters who came to Nepal from those rescue planes of India, you took a seat where a victim could be transported to hospitals/health camps. Thanks to you all reporters, you took a seat where a bag of food and supplies could be placed to send to those hard-hit places,” Shakya had written in her blogpost on May 1. She alleged the aggressive media coverage hampered relief and rescue efforts. “Your media and media personnel are acting like they are shooting some kind of family serials.”
Shakya also suggested journalists should have brought with them first-aid and food supplies for victims. “If your mediapersons can reach the places where the relief supplies have not reached, at this time of crisis, can’t they take a first-aid kit or some food supplies with them as well?”
Her blogpost went viral and was soon picked up by others. “Stop your Media-quake!! We are already in pang by devastating Earthquake and your news are not helping the victims!!”, said one tweet.
“Media humiliated poor Nepal in order to take credit & cheap publicity in the hour of crisis. Sad,” said another.
“Our media continues to embarrass & dismay India,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor wrote a post on Twitter, which was re-tweeted 337 times.
The earthquake on April 25, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, has so far killed at least 7,000 and injured 14,000 people. The displacement caused by the natural calamity reads at 24,000.
Notably, while most commentators targeted the Indian media, many were full of praise for the Indian government’s work in Nepal. Ranjit Rae, India’s ambassador to Nepal, wrote in Kantipur, the highest-circulating national daily in Nepal, that for every negative tweet, there were 10 positive posts congratulating the Indian government’s aid diplomacy.
Some of the Nepalis living in India have also expressed their displeasure with the media for hyping stories and lacking humane approach to the people of Nepal while asking questions.
“Dear@narendramodi our Dharahara may have fallen not our sovereignty! Sincerely Nepalese #GoHomeIndianMedia”, said one tweet, while another sarcastically said: “Mr @narendramodi please call your media back. They r just hurting us more.”
The Indian media was among the first to reach ground zero. It provided a wide coverage of the devastation, generating massive response in terms of relief and assistance. However, many feel the reports soon degenerated into mere gimmicks for television rating points, with several news reporters covering family cremation rites, asking insensitive questions from victims and survivors, and flashing gory images.
“Some Nepalis, not all, feel Indian media is a bit patronising in their attitude and that is perhaps why such sentiments are being expressed. That is how a section of Nepali media also feels,” Kunda Dixit, a veteran journalist and editor of Nepali Times, was quoted as saying in a report.
Another major criticism was that the media was glorifying the National Disaster Response Force and the Indian military.
