The norms say news should never skitter off from the truth. How much of the rule is followed in present times should be a topic of debate, but definitely, news these days is purported and vague, far away from the halcyon days of journalism. The run to become the best in business has instilled competition among media houses but withered the ethics of the trade. The news may thus happen to be faulty, superfluous, and faux pas.

It is not something resorted simply in journalism. Even governments make mistakes. In new times, media houses do not favor bringing news but are more satisfied in finding errors made by other news portals. The government favoring media houses thus sit with a scrutinizing eye to find faults with some news which has drubbed the government policies. Finding fault is acceptable, but incriminating the reporter involved and creating charges of conspiracy for asking questions are authoritarian traits nevertheless. The Kerala government, which is fiercely vocal about press freedom has lost its ground with the move against Asianet chief reporter Akhila Nandakumar.

LDF state secretary M V Govindhan declared war on such journalists who are hell-bent on tainting SFIs stature. He also accused the Asianet reporter of conspiracy while giving prosaic sermons about journalism. The irony is laughable since it is the same CPM cadres who cry foul over the mistreatment of journalists by the central government. Candlelight vigils and long marches in front of the Juma masjid are not lost on time. In a bid to evade such accusations, the LDF state secretary presciently warned not to connect this incident with central government's treatment of journalists. However, it is equal in all aspects, if not worse. One can only view these attempts to stifle voices as a bid to silence journalists who brought out the corruption which is teeming within the Kerala government.

Today, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury walked away when asked about the issue, but assume what if the question was tweaked to BBC and Modi? The comrade would definitely make a detour to the microphone in no time to give a ten-minute-long monologue on press freedom inserting mandatory Marx.

Times have changed. Journalists are not in their old selves ready to be scared by political gimmicks from leaders. Threats of police stations and the cases involved have turned petulant. The attempts to silence the journalists in the state won't pay dividends to CPM, albeit a good section of media allying with the left.