Journalist's work fortifies foundation of democracy: Ex-CJI Chandrachud

"Attention has emerged as tangible asset in 21st century, a new intellectual property," Chandrachud said in his the keynote address at 25th BS-Seema Nazareth Award for Excellence in Journalism, 2024

“A journalist’s work does not just inform; it fortifies the very foundation of democracy,” former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said on Wednesday. A journalist’s quest to uncover truths and retain people’s attention at a time when attention itself has become “a new intellectual property”, with too many seekers, is all the more important today, when the landscape of information consumption has changed, he said in his the keynote address at the 25th Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award for Excellence in Journalism, 2024.

 

The award is given each year to journalists of Business Standard under 30.

 

Delving into the subject of ‘Journalism as the mainstay of democracy’, the former CJI said, “Without journalists, society and their members are relegated to an inferior state of awareness and intellect.” This is, however, a challenging time for news media, and “journalism’s ability to balance truth with attention, ethics with urgency, and integrity with commerce is what will determine the future of democratic discourse,” he said.

 

Describing journalists as one of the oldest content creators, since their jobs often do not stop at collecting facts and publishing them raw, Chandrachud said, “Journalists engage in drawing crucial linkages between facts and subjective perception. They interpret facts from historical and economic perspectives.” This is a critical exercise because “the synthesis of raw facts with journalistic interpretation is a quest to uncover truths. The quality of our truths defines the health of our democracy”.

 

Democracy, the former CJI said, assumes that despite differences in opinion, there exists an underlying reality, a set of facts, that shape public discourse. “Journalism has long been the sentinel of this reality, working to uphold truth even as attention becomes the most sought after currency of the digital age.”

 

He spoke of how the evolution of media consumption had placed “unprecedented pressure on journalism to compete for attention in an ecosystem dominated by sensationalism, clickbait and viral misinformation”. Pointing to two key elements – personal data, and personal attention – that social media platforms require to maximise their engagements, he said, “This attention mining keeps the entire online ecosystem alive.” As it becomes scarce, more so with the rise of artificial intelligence, attention has “emerged as a tangible asset in the 21st century… a new intellectual property”.

 

For journalism, this means navigating “the delicate task of capturing attention while maintaining fidelity to the truth,” Chandrachud said, emphasising why this task cannot be taken lightly: “If the media fails to retain attention, truth risks fading into irrelevance.”

 

And if the media bends truth to gain attention, it erodes the very foundation upon which a democracy stands and survives, he said, adding that “truths are the economy in which democratic dialogue is transacted”.

 

The former CJI recognised the heavy responsibility journalism shoulders and the challenge it faces today in the tension between truth and commerce.

 

“Media organisations, like any other enterprise, must survive financially,” he acknowledged. The market-driven nature of the industry means that journalism must attract readers, secure advertising revenue and compete with platforms that are not bound by the same ethical constraints, he said. “This creates a paradox.”

 

The very principles that define quality journalism – namely thorough research and verification of facts – often slow it down in a race where speed is rewarded, Chandrachud said. “Truth is complex, information-heavy, and often unexciting.”

 

So how does journalism navigate this conundrum? How do media ethics ensure that commercial interests remain compatible with uncompromised reporting? He posed those questions and put forth some “essential safeguards” – such as translating abstract moral ethics of journalism to enforceable internal policies; bringing transparency in the sources of funding; having firewalls between editorial and business interests; and investing in investigative journalism, despite its cost.

 

He cited the case of The Washington Post as an example of “how an unhealthy relation between politics and businessmen can corrupt the independence of media organisations”.

 

“Institutions that have maintained credibility have done so by prioritising long-term trust over short-term gains under enormous pressure from money, muscle and politics,” Chandrachud said. “Journalism does not merely react to market forces. It shapes them. But the consequence of its corruption is in the undoing of the democracy in which it operates.”

 

Earlier, the Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award for Excellence in Journalism 2024 was presented to Senior Correspondent Shiva Rajora, who is based in New Delhi. The award carries a prize of Rs 75,000, a silver pen, and a citation. It has been instituted by Business Standard and the Nazareth family in memory of Seema Nazareth, a young Business Standard journalist who died on March 19, 1999.

 

The jury commended Rajora for “bringing rare vitality to labour-sector reporting with his engaging and insightful stories”. It took note of his accounts of the Employees Provident Fund reform and the integration of welfare schemes on to the e-Shram portal, and of the struggles of the unorganised sector workers and labour unions.

 

This year, in the ceremony held virtually, the Special Mention award was conferred on New Delhi-based Senior Sub Editor Anushka Bhardwaj. The award carries a citation and a cash prize of Rs 15,000.

 

The jury noted that Bhardwaj “has a gift for exploring special angles and looking beyond the obvious to report colourful but also meaningful stories”. It commended her for her diverse reporting – from cricket to language politics, and scams to Paralympics – as also her “ability to go deep to present an issue with humour and sparkle but also sensitive understanding”.

 

While presenting the vote of thanks, Seema Nazareth’s father, P A Nazareth, recalled how the first award was conferred at Rashtrapati Bhavan by then President K R Narayanan on his daughter’s birthday, which falls on February 21, and that among the personalities who have conferred the award over the years was the great grandson of the Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

 

Chandrachud had earlier opened his address by quoting from a poem titled “I Dream of Making a Mark Before I Die”, which Seema Nazareth had written a few months before she passed away.