Zimmedar Media Watch Network India
Creating a network of citizens critically scrutinizing the mainstream Indian media for biased reporting on minority communities, gender and other sensitive issues
Zimmedar in Urdu means Responsible
This website brings together the efforts of volunteers who monitor Indian media for irresponsible or prejudiced reporting. We are not against any community, group, or political party - nor do we represent any particular community or religion. We are against those who spread deliberate negative campaign against a particular community. We appeal for fair and honest reporting in the media.
Why do we need it?
Mainstream Indian media – newspapers, magazines, television, cinema, or websites – are the most important factors shaping up the public opinion, and strengthening people’s prejudices against particular communities, gender or other entities. Irresponsible and biased reporting in the newspapers, TV or popular cinema, portraying a negative image of a community, has become a big nuisance today. Such deliberately vicious portrayal in the media is not always very open or obvious – often it is very subtle or hidden: for instance, two or more headlines and photographs about a community being cleverly juxtaposed together on the front page of a newspaper, to give an overall negative impression.
Media Watch Groups Worldwide
Creating a negative image of Muslims
By Laila Yaghi
Global media giants: Who owns them and what is their goal? (a basic document
Media Watch - 22 years of activism!
Media Watch (ABC TV) Australia's leading forum for media analysis and comment
FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: Challenging media bias and censorship since 1986
Palestinian Media Watch; Also see PMWatch
Mediawatch-uk: Actively campaigning for accountability and public participation in broadcasting
Arab Media Watch for objective British coverage of Arab issues
Asian Media Watch: promoting the diverse, fair, and balanced portrayal of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in the media...
NewsWatch: A Consumer's Guide to the News
HonestReporting: monitoring mideast media anti-Israel bias
Why are the individual consumers of media helpless?
When you see a biased report about a certain community in a newspaper or on TV, there is very little you can do about it. Your protest letter to the editor may either not reach the person concerned or be completely ignored by the establishment. It is rare to see a letter of criticism being published or acknowledged by the publication.
Scrutinizing a large number of periodicals and TV channels for biased reporting on a daily basis, and then protesting against the biases through letters or emails, is a stupendous job which no one person could possibly do simply on a personal motivation. It needs a concerted effort by a team of intelligent people sensitized to the way media and politics work today.
What can be done?
The age of Internet and its real-time interactivity provides us some hope. Today, it is possible to make your voice heard - even if in a limited way - through the internet. Thus, the idea of a Media Watch Network basically arises out of a need to scrutinize the biased reporting, by a team of citizens on a 24-hour basis, and registering it on a web-based platform for everyone to see. One hopes that if such a network criticizes the biased reporting honestly, the mainstream periodicals and reporters who commit such biases may not be able to ignore our views, and may become a little more responsible. Since the network website will also have a facility for feedback or interaction on every report, there will be room for others (especially the concerned biased writer) to respond or defend.