[Music]
so hello everybody I am sorry Kathy
Valley I’m 20 money or old and I’m a
journalist and now and I’m going to talk
about what I’ve experienced as
journalists in all these years so I
wanted to be a journalist ever since I
was in third standard and because I was
always so keen on being a journalist I
have was this pretended that I already
am one so when I was young and used to
go for vacations with family I used to
carry this tiny notebook with a pen and
I used to keep taking notes here and
there pretending that I already am a
journalist over these years I have seen
a change in the tones of people when
they hear that you’re a journalist from
respect it’s come down to a sincere
sense of disbelief and anger to coat the
first instance we have a college
newspaper I was the editor of the
newspaper there were certain
disagreements between on some content
between the college authorities and the
editorial team and the entire class
during the time used to joke about how
the editors will go to the jail sadly
enough it didn’t stay a joke for long
and it came as a serious warning from
the college authorities that we might go
to jail
despite the article being true to all
journalistic standards but that’s a
different story
the sad part here is the fact that
questioning the authorities as
journalists is considered to be
something equal to being something
criminal
now the second instance is this random
Facebook post that I put on one day it’s
a it’s an observation about how the
biggest dilemma for urban urban
upper-middle class people is the
difference between the hay and yoghurt
and this was the cute story of how
Western imperialism got us some a very
random joke some person comments on its
saying look at these journalists trying
to impose their dilemmas or an urban
masses it shows how human beings these
days react to other human beings
reporting their own anxieties that means
we’re doing the wrong the job wrong
somewhere the third instance is these
these random Facebook posts and comments
that I keep coming across on Twitter and
unfazed
where people assume the premise to what
I am talking when what I’m saying is it
just becomes people’s perceptions
towards it it just becomes presumptuous
because they assume that I’m a
journalist and I become with a certain
set of values we don’t look at
journalists anymore as the watchdogs of
democracy or as or as people who will
voice our opinions we look at
journalists as somebody who we need to
listen to when all the other channels
all the other TV entertainment channels
are on an ad break and somewhere some TV
news channel is showing us the rasta to
the zhurqis serie now let’s all take a
moment and remind ourselves of the
headlines that we have seen in the past
one week on your phones on your in the
newspaper in the magazines anywhere now
for a moment go back to the GK books of
7th 8th standard chapters on Indian
diversity of about how the countries
such a diverse land now put these two
pieces of information together do you
think that the stories that the media
shows you today are representative of
this huge huge country of course no the
amount of stories that the media chooses
to not show us and that we eventually
stop caring about is humongous the
amounts of facts the misleading facts
that the media feeds us is warping the
media that we consume today is laced
with political interests the interests
of the advertisers and has become
conveniently selective to bring this
point home I’m going to talk about
something that I have personally worked
very closely with half the population
almost half the population in the
country are women 60% of the total
population of the country is dependent
on agriculture as a profession do you
know that the entire amount of food that
is produced in this country today 78
percent of it is produced by women only
13 percent women in the country own land
right now no official data has the data
on farmer suicides
if these farmers are women farmers now
let me tell you a story
the woman in this picture in the yellow
sari her name is Parvathi she’s 55 years
she’s so poor that she buys five bucks
of oil each day to go and cook each meal
she faces domestic violence from her
husband who is wheelchair ridden and
from her son when she goes and works in
the field she gets 120 bucks for the
same amount of work that any man would
get paid 200 bucks the problem right now
in the country is that the Supreme Court
took until 2005 to realize that
daughters have a right over paternal
property the problem is that the
Constitution of India still doesn’t
recognize women farmers explicitly in
their definition despites attempt being
made since 2002 we need to realize the
fact right now that we live in a country
where only 13% women owned land as I
told you and that is the core problem
when women do not own land or when any
farmer does not own land you’re not
entitled to any sort of government
subsidies when that doesn’t happen your
cost of investment increases when your
cost of investment goes high you need
loans but you can’t get a kiss on credit
because of course you don’t have land so
you can’t get kiss on credit card again
which leads you to the local moneylender
who charges you thrice the interest now
your cost of input goes high the returns
are meager so what do you do you end up
doing what most farmers in the country –
which is commit a suicide although if
you’re a woman even that do won’t do
much good to you because that won’t get
any compensation for your kids that you
leave behind had you been a man the
story would have been completely
different so practically what I’m trying
to say right now is it’s maybe slightly
easier for me to be a NASA scientist
than be a woman farmer that’s an
absolutely bad joke because I have no
skills whatsoever to be a NASA scientist
now you must wonder why did I tell you
that entire story I told you the story
because when this story reaches you this
is how it looks all these struggles all
the adversities and what the media
chooses to show you is this cell
sessional piece of information and I
also strongly believe that had a woman
reported the story had a woman
overlooked the story had a sorry I had a
woman reported the story I had a woman
approved the story the headline probably
would have looked a slightly more
different a slightly more better version
of what it looks right now the fact that
more women need women to represent them
in the media cannot be stated enough
number of times but that’s a story for
some other day now coming to more facts
do you know that the government of India
collected funds over a huge period of
time promising that these will be
invested to create a cleaner environment
and then one fine day all those funds
were diverted to promote some of the
policy do you know that the laws
governing the wetlands of the country
are being relaxed do you know that we
are making it easier for the industries
to pollute by each passing day do you
know that the eggs that you consume are
antibiotic resistant so one day you
might just pop an antibiotic pill and it
would stop working on your body because
of the poultry that you consuming do you
know that the president’s own office yes
the president of India’s own office
leaked the Adha details of five people
which is flouting the rule of the land
the president’s own office so many
things so many huge things happen in the
last month but what did we see the last
month we saw this and we saw this
and you must wonder why Mattel why why
does any of this matter to you it
matters to you because you are losing
your right as a viewer to see what you
want to see what you should be shown and
what is any responsible media’s duty to
show you the sad thing here is that the
media sets an agenda and it shows you
what it wants you to see this this and
this is dumping you down as a viewer
also at this point I need to tell you
something the fact that India has fallen
down to 136 number on the global Press
Freedom Index the data just came
recently and we’re we’re 136th that that
is below the water on Palestine which
means that a lot of journalists who want
to get their stories to you cannot do so
because they don’t have the resources
and unfortunately not the freedom to do
that so when you ask questions you
empower the media you empower yourself
and you empower the society because
these questions need to be asked the
media needs to be questioned the
government needs to be questioned and
you as a viewer have every right to ask
these questions because you pay for what
you watch and that you’re paying for
what you’re watching you have every
right to question its authenticity and
its credibility because you need to
realize your power as a viewer because
when you do that this story about
poverty Parvati’s land rights become
important to the media if you refuse to
watch this this woman who delivered a
baby on the hospital floor becomes news
if you refuse to watch this this farmer
who committed a suicide yes in that
manner on that transformer will be shown
on your television sets the entire day
as breaking news
if you refuse to consider this as
breaking news
the incessant sexism misogyny
misinformation selective representation
misrepresentation noise and a gazillion
other nonsense will be continued to be
aired on your television sets as news
till the time you choose to refuse to
watch it we need brave journalists we do
but we also need brave viewers thank you
[Applause]
so hello everybody I am sorry Kathy
Valley I’m 20 money or old and I’m a
journalist and now and I’m going to talk
about what I’ve experienced as
journalists in all these years so I
wanted to be a journalist ever since I
was in third standard and because I was
always so keen on being a journalist I
have was this pretended that I already
am one so when I was young and used to
go for vacations with family I used to
carry this tiny notebook with a pen and
I used to keep taking notes here and
there pretending that I already am a
journalist over these years I have seen
a change in the tones of people when
they hear that you’re a journalist from
respect it’s come down to a sincere
sense of disbelief and anger to coat the
first instance we have a college
newspaper I was the editor of the
newspaper there were certain
disagreements between on some content
between the college authorities and the
editorial team and the entire class
during the time used to joke about how
the editors will go to the jail sadly
enough it didn’t stay a joke for long
and it came as a serious warning from
the college authorities that we might go
to jail
despite the article being true to all
journalistic standards but that’s a
different story
the sad part here is the fact that
questioning the authorities as
journalists is considered to be
something equal to being something
criminal
now the second instance is this random
Facebook post that I put on one day it’s
a it’s an observation about how the
biggest dilemma for urban urban
upper-middle class people is the
difference between the hay and yoghurt
and this was the cute story of how
Western imperialism got us some a very
random joke some person comments on its
saying look at these journalists trying
to impose their dilemmas or an urban
masses it shows how human beings these
days react to other human beings
reporting their own anxieties that means
we’re doing the wrong the job wrong
somewhere the third instance is these
these random Facebook posts and comments
that I keep coming across on Twitter and
unfazed
where people assume the premise to what
I am talking when what I’m saying is it
just becomes people’s perceptions
towards it it just becomes presumptuous
because they assume that I’m a
journalist and I become with a certain
set of values we don’t look at
journalists anymore as the watchdogs of
democracy or as or as people who will
voice our opinions we look at
journalists as somebody who we need to
listen to when all the other channels
all the other TV entertainment channels
are on an ad break and somewhere some TV
news channel is showing us the rasta to
the zhurqis serie now let’s all take a
moment and remind ourselves of the
headlines that we have seen in the past
one week on your phones on your in the
newspaper in the magazines anywhere now
for a moment go back to the GK books of
7th 8th standard chapters on Indian
diversity of about how the countries
such a diverse land now put these two
pieces of information together do you
think that the stories that the media
shows you today are representative of
this huge huge country of course no the
amount of stories that the media chooses
to not show us and that we eventually
stop caring about is humongous the
amounts of facts the misleading facts
that the media feeds us is warping the
media that we consume today is laced
with political interests the interests
of the advertisers and has become
conveniently selective to bring this
point home I’m going to talk about
something that I have personally worked
very closely with half the population
almost half the population in the
country are women 60% of the total
population of the country is dependent
on agriculture as a profession do you
know that the entire amount of food that
is produced in this country today 78
percent of it is produced by women only
13 percent women in the country own land
right now no official data has the data
on farmer suicides
if these farmers are women farmers now
let me tell you a story
the woman in this picture in the yellow
sari her name is Parvathi she’s 55 years
she’s so poor that she buys five bucks
of oil each day to go and cook each meal
she faces domestic violence from her
husband who is wheelchair ridden and
from her son when she goes and works in
the field she gets 120 bucks for the
same amount of work that any man would
get paid 200 bucks the problem right now
in the country is that the Supreme Court
took until 2005 to realize that
daughters have a right over paternal
property the problem is that the
Constitution of India still doesn’t
recognize women farmers explicitly in
their definition despites attempt being
made since 2002 we need to realize the
fact right now that we live in a country
where only 13% women owned land as I
told you and that is the core problem
when women do not own land or when any
farmer does not own land you’re not
entitled to any sort of government
subsidies when that doesn’t happen your
cost of investment increases when your
cost of investment goes high you need
loans but you can’t get a kiss on credit
because of course you don’t have land so
you can’t get kiss on credit card again
which leads you to the local moneylender
who charges you thrice the interest now
your cost of input goes high the returns
are meager so what do you do you end up
doing what most farmers in the country –
which is commit a suicide although if
you’re a woman even that do won’t do
much good to you because that won’t get
any compensation for your kids that you
leave behind had you been a man the
story would have been completely
different so practically what I’m trying
to say right now is it’s maybe slightly
easier for me to be a NASA scientist
than be a woman farmer that’s an
absolutely bad joke because I have no
skills whatsoever to be a NASA scientist
now you must wonder why did I tell you
that entire story I told you the story
because when this story reaches you this
is how it looks all these struggles all
the adversities and what the media
chooses to show you is this cell
sessional piece of information and I
also strongly believe that had a woman
reported the story had a woman
overlooked the story had a sorry I had a
woman reported the story I had a woman
approved the story the headline probably
would have looked a slightly more
different a slightly more better version
of what it looks right now the fact that
more women need women to represent them
in the media cannot be stated enough
number of times but that’s a story for
some other day now coming to more facts
do you know that the government of India
collected funds over a huge period of
time promising that these will be
invested to create a cleaner environment
and then one fine day all those funds
were diverted to promote some of the
policy do you know that the laws
governing the wetlands of the country
are being relaxed do you know that we
are making it easier for the industries
to pollute by each passing day do you
know that the eggs that you consume are
antibiotic resistant so one day you
might just pop an antibiotic pill and it
would stop working on your body because
of the poultry that you consuming do you
know that the president’s own office yes
the president of India’s own office
leaked the Adha details of five people
which is flouting the rule of the land
the president’s own office so many
things so many huge things happen in the
last month but what did we see the last
month we saw this and we saw this
and you must wonder why Mattel why why
does any of this matter to you it
matters to you because you are losing
your right as a viewer to see what you
want to see what you should be shown and
what is any responsible media’s duty to
show you the sad thing here is that the
media sets an agenda and it shows you
what it wants you to see this this and
this is dumping you down as a viewer
also at this point I need to tell you
something the fact that India has fallen
down to 136 number on the global Press
Freedom Index the data just came
recently and we’re we’re 136th that that
is below the water on Palestine which
means that a lot of journalists who want
to get their stories to you cannot do so
because they don’t have the resources
and unfortunately not the freedom to do
that so when you ask questions you
empower the media you empower yourself
and you empower the society because
these questions need to be asked the
media needs to be questioned the
government needs to be questioned and
you as a viewer have every right to ask
these questions because you pay for what
you watch and that you’re paying for
what you’re watching you have every
right to question its authenticity and
its credibility because you need to
realize your power as a viewer because
when you do that this story about
poverty Parvati’s land rights become
important to the media if you refuse to
watch this this woman who delivered a
baby on the hospital floor becomes news
if you refuse to watch this this farmer
who committed a suicide yes in that
manner on that transformer will be shown
on your television sets the entire day
as breaking news
if you refuse to consider this as
breaking news
the incessant sexism misogyny
misinformation selective representation
misrepresentation noise and a gazillion
other nonsense will be continued to be
aired on your television sets as news
till the time you choose to refuse to
watch it we need brave journalists we do
but we also need brave viewers thank you
[Applause]
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