Journalism in Goa: An outsider looks in
Shiv KumarShiv Kumar is a Mumbai-based journalist who
occasionally para-drops into Goa for some sun, sea and
opportunities to tilt at a few windmills there. A
journalist, a freelance and subsequently as a
full-timer since 1992, Shiv Kumar was the Goa
correspondent of The Indian Express from 1998 to 2000.
After moving back to Mumbai, he is with the Indo-Asian
News Service (IANS).
Today, happily there is a vast talent pool of
journalists among the Goan Diaspora that is making its
mark in news media across the world. The movement of
journalists from Goa to newsrooms across the globe is
perennial. The Middle East and the West are popular
destinations but then so is Mumbai: a popular stepping
stone to this peripatetic breed. Reporters, deskies,
the butterflies flitting through the features pages...
one can count first generation migrant Goans everywhere.
As a rookie reporter in Mumbai in the 1990s, lesson one
was about Goan journos fresh off the boat (the
Bombay-Goa steamer was a recent memory then) gladly
beginning at the bottom despite having done duty in one
of Goa's three English-language newspapers. Editors
marveled at the `material' coming out of Goa with
well-rounded exposure in a city where people are
quickly slotted into different 'beats'.
At first, one wondered why someone with several years'
experience in the profession was willing to take the
bullshit dished out by preppies all for a measly six
grand gross monthly. And just when we got used to
seeing their bylines, off to the Gulf the Goenkars went.
The penny dropped much later when one moved to Goa on
assignment. Poor pay and lousy working environments
surely could not make up for Goa's fabled joys of life.
But then Mumbai's charms too quickly faded in the face
of the daily grind one had to endure. So it was only a
matter of time before the Goans pulled up their posts
and set sail Westwards, to the Middle East and to other
uncharted territories.
One doesn't have to go too far -- only till the Goajourno
Mailing List
(http://indialists.org/mailman/listinfo/goajourno) --
to figure out how far the hack pack from Goa go. They
are out there in Bangkok bringing out a jumbo newspaper
for a community that can barely read English. In Fiji,
from where the Indian population flees after every coup
d'etat, journos of Goan origin move in the reverse
direction. In Stockholm, it was a Goan journalist who
found himself on the headlines while trailing the
killers of a Swedish Prime Minister.
So why do journalists from Goa bloom only on alien
terrain?
A conversation I had with the venerable Lambert Mascarenhas
comes to mind. Just settling in for a long chat at
someone's house at Dona Paula, Mascarenhas asked me why
I was not trying my luck outside. I told him about the
variety of experience I enjoyed as a journalist, the
wide range of stories I could do and the opportunities
to travel though the profession paid only slightly more
than my earlier employer, the government.
Free Goa's first English-language editor sighed, nodded
his head wisely and told me no newspaper in Goa would
ever send out a reporter even to cover a major event.
"And the money is so much better... the Gulf newspapers
pay so much more," Mascarenhas told me. Perhaps
Mascarenhas would have thought differently had
newspaper owners in Goa exhibited more commitment to
professionalism. Just browsing through the back issues
of Goa Today edited by Manohar Shetty proved to be an
eye-opener on what could have been.
With Devika Sequiera and others, the old Goa Today
turned out to be a delightful surprise. Well researched
and crisply written stories like the ones on the
protests against charter tourism in the early 1990s
were a joy to read long after the magazine became a
pale shadow of itself.
One saw similar flashes of the classic fire in the
belly kind of journalism during the agitation against
Meta Strips metal recycling plant four years ago. But
matters have since slipped back into the safe routine
of old. While mediapersons elsewhere in the country are
agitated over the loss of substance to the infusion of
style and gloss in the age of colour, it's prolonged
siesta time in Goa.
The English-language newspaper market ensures that the
readership is carved equally among both the players.
Just 2000 copies separate the number one daily oHeraldo
and the runner-up Navhind Times as per the latest Audit
Bureau of Circulation survey. But with neither of them
aiming to break out for total dominance there is little
investment either in editorial or in printing technologies.
Though tourism is major contributor to Goa's revenues,
the newspapers offer little to a visitor. The colour
and vitality of the tiny state simply does not reflect
in its English-language newspapers. Though it is the
beach belt that draws all the tourists, there is very
little coverage from these areas in the local
newspapers. As one senior journalist remarked to me,
Goa moves simultaneously on two parallel lines. And the
beach belt is a whole world away from the hinterland
that provides all of Goa's journalists. So the hotels
and the party scene appear rarely on their radar, and
that too only when disgruntled politicians in the area
rake up environmental or other issues.
There is a thriving party scene on the beach belt that
could have been happening on some other planet going
strictly by the newspapers in Goa. Purely as a
marketing play, newspapers here should be allocating
resources to ensure adequate coverage of the tourism
sector. There are any number of marketers eager to tap
the floating tourist population and the newspapers here
missing out on big opportunities.
But then even the coverage of day to day issues in
Goa's English-language newspapers leaves much to be
desired. During the two years I spent in Goa, I can
remember barely three or four memorable stories from
the state's three English-language newspapers. The
regional language newspapers, on the other hand, have
stolen a march over their English-language counterparts
as publications of record. A comprehensive coverage of
Goa, aided by a network of stringers spread all over
the state, ensured that the Marathi Tarun Bharat was a
newspaper of choice for anyone looking for a bird's
eye-view of Goa every morning.
Tarun Bharat's strategy to topple existing market
leader Gomantak by investing in people and technology
makes an interesting case study in the newspaper
business. With very little marketing muscle on the
lines of the Times group or Dainik Bhaskar to speak of,
the newspaper simply worked at reporting from the
grassroots to capture a leadership position in the
market. That Tarun Bharat has still not found favour
among Goa's Marathi-speaking intelligentsia is another story.
On the other hand, Goa's English-language newspapers
have sold out to petty politicians and the mining
lobbies as weightier examples from other contributors
to this e-book indicate. Lethargy runs so deep that
there is little coverage of even the staples like
society, courts, crime and health that form the
backbone of newspapers all over the world. Owners of
English-language newspapers here are so indifferent
that the photographers on the rolls have to bring their
own cameras to work -- something unheard off in the
mainstream media.
So the big stories in Goa are buried in two-para
dispatches from the mofussils. I still cannot figure
out why the dispute between a section of gaunkars in Cuncolim
and the Catholic Church received poor display in Goan
newspapers. Here was a big story of unresolved caste
conflicts that transcended religious conversion and
economic prosperity spread over half a millenium. Let
alone dwell on the academic angles in the edit pages,
Goa's English-language newspapers, barring the Herald,
downplayed the story. Even Herald's reportage consisted
of allegations and counter allegations from interested
parties with out any indepth coverage. I am happy to
say that my then newspaper, The Indian Express played
up my stories on the episode prominently as the anchor
on the front page nationally. Unfortunately even after
the national and international media picked it up,
there was little improvement in the coverage by the
local press.
Another story played out as a farce in Goa's
English-language newspapers: when former chief minister
Shashikala Kakodkar's estranged husband passed away,
the news received prominent display in all the major
English-language newspapers. Only the lady's
relationship with the deceased was suppressed in the obit!
With complete censorship, voluntary or otherwise, Goan
journalists seem to exist in a blissful state of
non-competitiveness. Trained to break stories and score
one on the competition, I was amazed at the unofficial
news pool system that operates at the Press Room at the
Panjim Secretariat. The twice-daily 'edit meets' at the
Adil Shahi palace ensures that only the very junior
reporters intimidated by the Press Room circle break
stories of any importance. One could depend on the
juniors at The Herald and Gomantak Times (under Ashwin Tombat
) to put out at least one readable story a day.
Understandably, Goa's newspapers survive on a staple of
political verbiage all generated from the safe confines
of the Press Room. Unverified allegations that would
not pass muster with even a trainee in a national
newspaper find play on the front pages. With no
facility to train journalists in the state, trainees
here look towards the Press Room as some kind of a
finishing school!
Over the years, the Press Room crowd have attached
themselves to the camps of different politicians. It's
a temptation common to journalists in every small town
and Goan journalists have fallen neck deep in it. With
nothing exciting enough, politics becomes the
all-consuming passion for 'senior journalists'. So the
current storm over journalists accused of obtaining
favours from the current BJP-run dispensation comes as
no surprise.
It has always been easy for journalists to be sucked
into different political camps considering the
proliferation of politicians in the state. There are 40
MLAs, three MPs -- including one in the Rajya Sabha --
and scores of municipal/panchayat level 'leaders' for a
population of less than 1.4 million which includes the
Gulfies and shippies).
Even junior reporters easily manage to invite a
minister or two for family functions. Journalists are
also not above seeking the help of politicians to solve
problems even in their workplaces. Many of them even
grow to depend on the ruling politicians for basics
like accommodation in the capital because of inadequate
remuneration from their employers.
It's the same story everywhere in the country, but the
sheer number of journalists in a big city like Mumbai
or Delhi helps mask the dilution of ethics among a
select few. Like everywhere else in the world a few
journalists in Goa too happily combine their jobs and
elective roles as fixers for politicians. The icing on
the cake is however to inveigle into a chief minister's
coterie thereby ensuring government contracts for self
or family members.
Under the chief ministership of Manohar Parrikar, the
issue has hit the headlines especially after Rajan Narayan
announced his resignation from the Herald (in
September 2003). But during his days in the opposition,
Parrikar slogged at wooing the media. As leader of the
Opposition, Parrikar could be depended upon to come up
with all sorts of files to put the then Congress
government on the mat. Journalists looking for a juicy
story never returned disappointed. To be fair to
Parrikar he did not even hint about the need for a quid
pro quo from the journalists tapping him for
information on the then Congress government.
Journalists who are now accused of obtaining favours
from the incumbent chief minister were even then known
to be part of Parrikar's coterie, though a large number
of journalists sought out the former leader of the
opposition. However with the media eating out of his
hands, Parrikar had the mantle of Mr Clean wrapped on
his shoulders -- either by design or by default. One
now gets the feeling that a small group of journalists
probably played a part in building Parrikar's
reputation with the expectations of being paid back at
an appropriate time. Agreed, there is genuine
admiration for the man -- IIT Bombay alumni, quick
acting, with a vision for the middle class, etc. But
the cause of good journalism is compromised.
Today, there is very little criticism coming up against
the ruling BJP government in Goan newspapers. For
instance, there has been very muted coverage of some
elements in Parrikar's cabinet -- like a minister who
is rumoured to be pushing illegals into Europe. Another
worthy has a reputation of being a ruthless moneylender
whose rumored 'sex scandals' could even put Jalgaon to
shame, as the BJP leadership is itself known to have
once argued.
The kid-glove treatment meted out to the BJP government
has also been extended to the extend Sangh parivar,
despite the ideological opposition to it in many
sections of the Goan society. Parrikar's handing over
government schools to unregistered groups of alleged
RSS-linked activists barely registers a presence in
local discourse even among members of the minority
Christian community traditionally opposed to right-wing
Hindu politics.
While the reluctance of local newspapers to rattle the
ruling politicians is understandable, there is really
no reason for correspondents of outstation newspapers
to follow suit. But for a couple of honorable
exceptions, correspondents with outstation publications
too have decided to toe the government line.
Unfortunately for Goa, the market is too small to
attract the attention of any national or international
investor in the media scene.
Most of the quarter-million or so households in Goa who
can afford to do so, already buy a newspaper and a new
investor can only hope to net a marginal increase in
circulation. The failure of The Times of India to
penetrate the Goan market is a case in point. With its
financial muscle, the Times was best placed to shake up
the Goan market. Even while skirting controversial
issues, the newspaper could have made an impact with a
comprehensive coverage of Goa. But the newspaper
clearly did not see it worthwhile to continue and
pulled out after a four-year long presence, and 'Goa
edition' plans, in the state.
Even the Sakal group, the other outside group to enter
Goa, has not been able to figure out the
English-language newspaper market here. Having bought
over the Gomantak from the Chowgules, the Sakal group
does not seem to be interested in making big-ticket
investments in the English-language Gomantak Times. As
Goa's third English-language daily continues to bleed,
there is a very strong possibility that there would be
one less player in the English language market in the
near future.
One can only hope that increased competition following
the entry of foreign publications in India provides
enough incentives for future players to dig their heels
deeper into the Goan market. Hopefully, national
players in the media business and expatriate Goans will
see a market in selling quality journalism in Goa.