iamnews.

com - article : Making the news, not breaking it 26/09/09 7:31 PM

Hey Lina / $0.00 / / My Account / Log Out

Newsroom My News Post items

We're test running iamnews. Learn more

Home / Newsroom / Article Delete Edit

Making the news, not breaking it <<More Articles

Added 1 minute ago / Location: India / In Political News

Contact owner for
Tags: Media | Iraq | citizen | journalist License This more info
Word Count: 715

Last Update: 26/09/2009 10:00:00

About the author

Making the news, not breaking it
Lina ( Lina Krishnan )
It wasn’t a bomb. Not even a grenade. It was an ordinary article of daily use that got Writer
thrown at the president of the world’s most officious nation. It must be something really
confounding the people who guard the powerful of the world. Because you can run
security checks and extract pencil bombs, knives, pepper spray or the other
paraphernalia of our fearful times. But how can you prevent people from walking in with Rank : 0 by 0 users
their shoes on, or for that matter with a hard book, or other potential everyday ‘missiles’?

Everyday. That’s the key. Because Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw a
pair of shoes at US President George Bush, was not just a member of the media. He
represents the everyman. The ordinary persons whose lives are turned upside down by Varied communication projects over 18 years.
Environment projects for TV, Programme Mgmt. at
the political establishment of their own and other countries, but who in the ordinary the United Nations, writing for print and web, NGO
course of events just shrug, and continue as best as they can. When a dam displaces work. Began with advertising (copy, campaigns,
them, they move to a city slum. When they lose their life’s small savings to a bank scam, training creative teams). An exposure to
grassroots projects prompted a switch to
they blame it on their own bad luck, just suffering the slings and arrows of fortune. It’s environment and development communications.
the stuff of which resistance fighters are emphatically not made. Last job as outreach manager/website editor
involved turning research findings into popular
What then, could have pushed this quiet young man into doing something that put him in communication. For my articles, see
http://www.scribd.com/chalkabout
prison, and could well have ended in his peremptory hanging from the nearest tree, if the
Americans hadn’t been so keen to prove how much they believed in a fair trial (never
Complete Profile >>
mind Guantanamo). Was it a premeditated assault or a spontaneous moment of
unendurable anger at seeing the invader felicitated, the man responsible for turning his
country into shambles? A bit like expecting the Palestinians cheer on Netanyahu or the Location: India
victims of Ahmedabad pay tributes to Narendra Modi. Or for that matter, the perpetrators Member since Jun 01,2009
of 9/11 being felicitated at Harvard.

Except, of course, that Muntazer al-Zaidi is a journalist. In which capacity he got the sort
of access to President Bush that the ordinary Iraqi citizen wouldn’t have. One could Latest Content
argue that he abused that privilege, or that he used the opportunity brilliantly. The stories Making the news, not breaking it
of al-Zaidi, and others who were inspired by his act, such as Indian journalist Kuldip Dreaming inside a dark room
Singh, who threw his shoe at India’s home minister P Chidambaram to protest inaction
against an accused in the 1984 Sikh killings, have sparked off a debate about the extent Jaduguda Fallout
of engagement permissible for members of the press, who are expected to be objective. Barpak gets a ropeway
Neutral. Not taking stands.

This argument is a little flawed when you consider that the media nowadays is part of More In this topic (96)
the charmed circle, whose members usually flaunt their closeness to politicians, or are More from India (75)
subject to business lobbies favoured by their publishers. In that sense, al-Zaidi
represents the old fashioned reporter whose faculties haven’t been dimmed by pelf. Then
again, reportage of any sort, inevitably involves a point of view. Al-Zaidi’s usual course of
action could have been to highlight the inadequacies of the US/Iraqi regime. Artists and
journalists have, in past such situations, used poems, protests, provocative theatre or
other intellectual means to make their point. Choosing to take personal hands-on action,
and his choice of a shoe as a weapon, specifically insulting in eastern cultures, argues a
far more intense and personal response. Here is where the line between journalist and
citizen blurs.

But if you move away from the motives and look at the effects, look at the sheer
awareness his simple but daring act brought to the issues belabouring the Iraqi people.
Overnight, a disparate society of war-weary Iraqis and other oppressed societies, had
found a new cause to rally around, a new form of expression. Every nation that has felt
the pinch of US bullying could empathise. Writers like Arundhati Roy have talked about
the value of taking matters head-on. When criticised by Ramachandra Guha for her
strident activist writings, she responded, "I am hysterical. I'm screaming from the bloody
rooftops. And he and his smug little club are going 'Shhhh.. you'll wake the neighbours!' I
want to wake the neighbours, that's my whole point. I want everybody to open their

http://www.iamnews.com/Users/Lina/Articles/Making%20the%20news,%20not%20breaking%20it Page 1 of 2
iamnews.com - article : Making the news, not breaking it 26/09/09 7:31 PM

eyes".

So maybe it’s on the wrong foot, but the message is straight from the heart.

Lina Krishnan, Bangalore, India

License This Contact owner for more info << Back To Lina Newsroom

Comments

Add Your Comment

Add this Comment

Newsroom: What is iamnews.com?

Looking for reporters, photographers, experts and more: It is an open content exchange spot that connects
Main Business Entertainment publishers and contributors from around the world. Join
Health & Lifestyle Political News Technology iamnews here
Travel Sports World News

About Blog Contact Terms Privacy Help

http://www.iamnews.com/Users/Lina/Articles/Making%20the%20news,%20not%20breaking%20it Page 2 of 2