Monday, December 22, 2008

ಪಲ್ಸ್ ಪೋಲಿಯೋ: ಗೊಂದಲ ನಿರ್ಮಿಸಿದ ಟಿ ವಿ ಚಾನಲ್ ಮೇಲೆ ದೂರು!

(ಸುದ್ದಿ ಸಂಗ್ರಹ)
ಸಮಾಜ ಕಂಟಕ
(click on image for a good writeup in Churumuri)
" Through its conduct , choice of stories, and style of breaking news for the past two years, TV9 has taken television journalism to disgraceful new lows and on Sunday it hit a new depth by its own standard. This latest disgrace of TV9—without ascertaining the veracity—deserves to condemned as nothing short of criminal."
"What do you do when a false and mischievous story administers a deadly blow to a well-intentioned medical initiative that reaches out to large, mostly poor and illiterate, sections of society?"
"should the reporter, who was responsible for filing the story without checking for facts, and the editor, who cleared it without bothering to verify the claim, be hauled up and criminal charges framed against them?"

Rumours on pulse polio spark violence

A wave of mischievous rumours about babies dying after being administered pulse polio drops caused panic in Tamil Nadu including Chennai. It all started with a private television, owing allegiance to an opposition party, running a scroll claiming that a child in Erode district had died after taking the polio drops.
Hospitals in Bangalore, which saw crowds of people last night following rumours that pulse polio drops were making children sick, are back to normal now. Authorities are making it clear that it was just rumours that had caused the panic and that there was nothing wrong with the vaccine. But it was an anxious time for both parents - and the hospitals - which had to try and calm the people down. Satish Chandra, Medical Superintendent, Bowring Hospital, says: "From the information we have from the police, the rumours started from Tamil Nadu. There was a death in Tamil Nadu. This was a post operative death -- it was not due to Pulse Polio. That kept spreading and came into Karnataka. Basically it was rumours that spread like wildfire and caught on to the hospitals." And the hospitals had a difficult night of trying to calm down frightened parents. Bowring Hospital property was even damaged. A day after the scare, things are quiet again, but it is clear that not all parents are convinced. Lakshmi, a mother, says: "We put the polio drops last night and the child was not well. In the morning we got to know that the stock was not proper so we brought the child in for a check up."The main concern now is to see that the Pulse Polio programme does not get derailed by this panic.Dr Chandra says: "We need to continue with this programme. We are nearing eradication. We need to continue with this programme, continue with this programme and go ahead. There is no looking back."
Corrupt media, greedy pharma lobbies...perfect prescription for unrest and confusion...
Can we trust them at the times of terror attack/ war?
ಯಾರದೋ ಲಾಭಕ್ಕೆ ತಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಮಾರಿಕೊಂಡು ಸುಳ್ಳು ಸುದ್ದಿ ಹರಡಿಸಿದ ಕೆಲ ದೃಶ್ಯ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮಗಳು...ಭಯೋತ್ಪಾದನೆ/ ಕೋಮು ಗಲಭೆಯಂತಹ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಇವರ ಸುದ್ದಿಗಳೂ ಹೀಗೆ!
(ಈ ನಿಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಮುದ್ರಣ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮ ಜನರಿಗೆ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿಯ ನಿಜ ರೂಪ ತೆರೆದಿತ್ತು ಧೈರ್ಯ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ ಭೇಷ್ ಅನ್ನಲೇಬೇಕು!)
ಜನರಿಗೆ ತಪ್ಪು ಮಾಹಿತಿ ನೀಡಿ ವದಂತಿ ಹರಡುವುದೂ ಒಂಥರಾ ಭಯೋತ್ಪಾದನೆ!
ಆರೋಗ್ಯ ಸಚಿವರ ಹೇಳಿಕೆ- ಧೈರ್ಯ ತುಂಬುವ ಯತ್ನ...
ವದಂತಿಗಳ ಹರಡುವ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮ...ಇವರಿಗೇನು ಲಾಭ?
ಅಥವಾ ಇದೂ "ಪ್ರಾಯೋಜಿತ " ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವೇ?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Sir, u being a home minister..we are more interested on seeing updates about the police and security.

Yes, other articles are definetely important. However, if the blogs on security becomes just another one as pulse polio etc., it is a matter of concern. We like to learn more about your ministry sir.

Dr V S Acharya said...

Don`t you agree that these rumour monging ultimately leads to law and order situation?
We also should look at soft designs of the terror groups, who want to create unrest in the society, ultimately make people lose faith in governance!
(other possible soft designs of terror groups are = use of bio terror =poison city`s water source =defamation of rulers/police forces)
Rumour monging media is doing more damage than some terror designs!

Anonymous said...

When police are called in to control people who are destroying hospitals it is indeed a law and order issue.

Also note Vijaya Karnataka news where they mentioned at midnight police went around the city announcing that polio deaths are only rumour. They also took help of local youth to spread the message.

Unfortunately such good deeds of law enforcement are never highlighted by main stream media. So keep up the good work.

Prabhath M Kalkura said...

Respected sir,
Today i was watching your comment about pulse polio program in press conference. First and foremeost i want to congratulate you for giving brave statement on pulso polio on public interest.
I am a part of this movement since last eight years. I have worked both in urban and rural area. I felt the attitude of the people on polio vaccination was unfavourable during early 2000. But because of intensive awareness program attitude have been changed now people are positively responding. We can see many people voluntarily coming to booth. So we could find hardly 10 to 15% of children not vaccinated during door to door activities.
We know the pain of motivating , conviencing people to have pulse polio. Now we are on verge of succeding by no incidence of polio cases since last two years. All who worked for this polio program feel pride about this.
But way tv9 spread the rumor had adverse effect on door to door activity this time. This time i was working for pulso polio program at Kalenaagrahara which is at Uttarahalli assembly constituency. Where people were reluctant to have polio during their house visit, as well as we got nice scolding from them as if we gave poison to their children. All these things only because of bad interest on journalism showed by very small group of journalists working for tv9.
Here it is my humble request to you sir. You should order a thorough enquiry on this and make those culprits to apologise through same media with the intensitry they spread the rumor. It should reach to each and every house in Karnataka. I feel this will remotivate all people who are honestly and sincerely working with this movement since many years. This tv9 was no where when this program started.
We should not let media creat nonsense on these national health programs.

Prabhath M Kalkura said...

Respected sir,
Today i was watching your comment on nonsense created by tv9 regarding pulse polio program in press conference. First and foremeost i want to congratulate you for giving a brave statement on this incident publicly.
I am a part of this movement since eight years. I have worked both in urban and rural area. I felt the attitude of the people on polio vaccination was unfavourable during early 2000. But because of intensive awareness program mind set of people changed and we had seen positive response from public irrespective of upper and lower class people. We can see many people voluntarily coming to booth on first day. So we could find hardly 10 to 15% of children not vaccinated during door to door activities.
We know the pain of motivating , conviencing people to vaccinate their children. Now we are on verge of success no incidence of since last two years was an indication. All who worked for this polio program feel pride about this.
But the way tv9 spread the rumor had adverse effect on door to door activities this time. This time i was working for pulso polio program at Kalenaagrahara which is at Uttarahalli assembly constituency. Where people were reluctant to have polio during their house visit, as well as we got nice scolding from them as if we had given poison to their children. This was a result of bad interest on journalism showed by very small group of journalists working for tv9.I want to remind that this tv9 was not even born when this pulse program started.
Here it is my humble request to you sir. You should order a thorough investigation on this and make those culprits to apologise through same media with the same intensitry they spread the rumor. It should reach to each and every houses in Karnataka. I feel this will motivate all people who are honestly and sincerely working with this movement since many years.
We should not let media creat nonsense with national health programs.