HIM??! Oh my god, I had NO idea..

Not too long ago, irresponsible news reporting was just a concept to me - one I felt something needed to be done about. It was wrong, I agreed. It really needed to be kept in check, I conceded. Unfortunately, I was one of those who didn't worry too much about things that didn't affect me or those in my life. But that was soon to change.

Irresponsible journalism may be due to a lot of different reasons.The reporter might not have all the facts him/herself, the 'facts' themselves might be faulty or only one side of the story might be reported. Sometimes news is sensationalized by giving unintended meanings to words, allegations are made and then attributed to unnamed authorities. These 'authorities' may be unreliable, faulty or even fabricated. People are quoted out of context. A lot of times, reporters talk about things they have no idea about. And when a mistake is realized, it is never admitted. The worst part of this whole business is that no one ever questions the veracity of news reports.

The consequences, then, of that one reporter's mistakes can be very damaging to a person, organization, and sometimes even an entire community. Free speech and freedom of press are fundamental rights, most definitely pivotal to the progress of society, preventing it from sliding into tyranny and fascism. However, unbridled freedom, deliberate maligning and rumor mongering, if done in the name of freedom of press will have the opposite effect. It may lead to the breeding of suspicion, unrest and civil strife.

Irresponsible journalism ceased to be just a technical term to me not very long ago. Starting from the morning of the 28th of Feb, my dad started getting calls asking him about a news report that had appeared in the Times of India. My dad had no idea what they were talking about, so someone sent him a link to it. The article said that MITA (Muslim IT professionals' Association), an organization that my father (Mr. K M Sherif) founded, was a terror network that provided logistic and financial support to anti-national groups. It also implied that he was absconding and that the police was searching for him.

Naturally, my dad was shocked. He is a man who has the best interests of the society in his heart. He is a very caring, generous person, respected and honored by those that know him, for being the kind of person he is. MITA was his own effort at trying to give back to the society. It is a network of Muslim IT professionals who are willing to give their time and money to those who needed it. It has sponsored students' education, held career counseling sessions and worked for orphans, among other things.

My dad has a lot of friends from his college days at BITS who knew him very well for the wonderful person he is, and who came forward and said that between believing that he was involved in anti-national activities and disbelieving the newspapers, they would disbelieve the newspapers. There were also other friends of his who knew for a fact that what the newspapers were saying couldn't be true. I am grateful to God for this. Naturally, not everyone could be so sure. There were those who didn't know him too well, who started avoiding him. Needless to say, to know that people are walking around thinking that you were helping fund anti-national organizations all along, and wanting to steer clear of your path is disheartening, especially if you spend your life trying to do the opposite. My dad's company is in the process of bidding for and negotiating many contracts with Indian Software companies. And a report like that would cause serious, perhaps irreversible damage to those contracts.

There are two points that I would like to bring up over here.

The first is that not everyone is as fortunate as, by God's grace, my dad was. He had his own company when this happened. There would be so many others who would've lost their jobs the minute some such insinuative report about them appeared in the papers. Having lost their jobs, they would look to friends and relatives for help, many of whom might not know them well enough, or have the understanding to discredit what the papers are saying about the person. And being branded a terrorist, no lawyer would even consider taking up his case, for fear of ending up like Ismail Jalagar. No job, no moral support, not even a fair trial - all because some journalist somewhere didn't do his/ her job responsibly!

The second thing is that my dad was not just an ordinary citizen who was unfortunate enough to have the press drag his name into something he had nothing to do with. His organization wasn't just a muslim organization which hasn't hurt a fly. My dad, through MITA, and even otherwise, worked for the upliftment of the community.

When a man and his organization, both of which work in the best interests of the society, are slandered and branded anti - national elements by the press, it shows to what depths journalism has sunk.

Here's a very interesting article I found on irresponsible journalism.

My dad called a press conference to refute the allegations against him.

To see the press release handed over to the journalists before the press conference, right click here and copy link location. Then open a new window or tab, paste the link there and press enter. Do NOT click on the above link directly.

These are the videos of the press conference: