Analysis Of The Representation Of Mumbai Railway Station Stampede In The Hindu Newspaper
On the morning of September 29, 2017, a stampede broke out on a pedestrian bridge connecting two railway platforms in Mumbai, India at the suburban Prabhadevi railway station, formerly known as Elphinstone station. The incident occurred during the morning rush hour when four trains arrived simultaneously at the station. At least twenty-two people were killed and 35 others were injured due to the stampede. According to reports, the incident was caused due to a rumor suggesting the pedestrian bridge was about to collapse, which led the crowd to panic. At the time, many highlighted that the situation got worse due to lack of response from the emergency officials, and their failure to carry out crowd control measures.
Coverage of the stampede
From print to broadcast to digital, the stampede had struck the nation at a time when many questioned the Central and State government for spending on projects such as the bullet train project from Mumbai to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, instead of focusing on basic infrastructure in the financial capital. Mumbai Stampede and reporting by “The Hindu” One of India’s leading publications, “The Hindu” on October 1, published an article titled “Elphinstone stampede: Dying woman molested on the bridge by a bystander, video shows. ” The Hindu is an Indian daily newspaper, headquartered at the southern city of Chennai. The article was written by journalist named Vedika Chaubey, who at the time of promoting the story on her social media handle, had tweeted an 8-second video. The story read, “A woman victim of the stampede, seconds from breathing her last, was molested by a bystander as she lay atop a pile of victims on the foot-over-bridge (FOB) on Friday, a video clip shows. The woman, trapped by the bodies, reaches out weakly for help before dropping her hand and breathing her last. ” Keeping the credibility of the newspaper cum digital news portal in mind, multiple organizations — Firstpost, Zee News and ScoopWhoop — picked up the story citing The Hindu as a source. While Firstpost captioned their story as “Elphinstone Road stampede: Video shows dying woman molested by a bystander, railway police promise probe, ” ScoopWhoop wrote, “Video Captures Dying Woman Getting Molested During Elphinstone Stampede. Where Is Humanity Headed?”
The course of events was not corroborated by any witnesses present at the scene, and the 8-second video accompanying the tweet was what most agreed to be inconclusive. When social media started demanding further clarity, a 40-second video came to light which showed that the man was actually trying to rescue the woman and help her out of the pile of bodies. The video accessed by the journalist from The Hindu put forth the situation from a different angle which caused her to draw incorrect conclusions. Following the reportage, the Mumbai police also looked into the allegations. “The victim got stuck in between the railing of the bridge. The commuter tried to drag her out. He rested her body on his foot and was trying to pull her and grabbed her by the chest, ” the Indian Express quoted an official from the Mumbai police as saying.
How did the news organization handle the situation?
Following the outbreak and increasing questioning, the Editor of The Hindu released an official apology which read, “A perusal of the clip does not warrant such a conclusion. We regret the publication of this report, which was the result of the failure to adhere to journalistic norms in both reporting and editorial supervision. ” The story was withdrawn from all online platforms of The Hindu. The writer of the story, Vedika Chaubey, also took to Twitter and said that it was a “terrible lapse of judgment” on her part. With a view to preventing such a situation from arising again, the Editor, Mukund Padmanabhan, instructed the digital desk of the organization to actively promote the apology from the newspaper’s social media handle. Additionally, it is said that Padmanabhan carried out a series of in-house meetings to put in place a system for vetting all sensitive stories published in the newspaper.
Did the organization make the right call?
The Elphinstone tragedy shook the nation and brought down the morale of the city of Mumbai. While it is crucial to acknowledge the effort taken by The Hindu to apologize and take responsibility for their actions, there are certain ethical dilemmas which need to be highlighted: Considering the degree to which the article was quoted by other media organizations, The Hindu should have kept the article on their website instead of withdrawing it. Organizations such as The Independent and ScoopWhoop still have a piece on how things unfolded, whereas, on the website of The Hindu, one can only access the apology.
Additionally, The Hindu should have considered incorporating an addendum which explained how the turn of events unfolded, similar to what The New York Times in September 2018 did with their story titled, “State Department Spent $52, 701 on Curtains for Residence of U. N. Envoy. ” The credibility of the writer and the severity of the story calls for an additional eye at the time of publishing. According to a report filed by OpIndia. com, this is not the first time that Chaubey has published a story without completing thorough fact-checking. Earlier in an article titled, “Railway catering scam: 100gm curd for ₹972, refined oil for ₹1, 241 a litre, ” published in May 2017, Chaubey claimed that a Right to Information (RTI) filed by an activist “revealed that the Central Railway's catering department purchased certain food items to stock their warehouses” for inflated prices. Following the story, the Railway Ministry refuted the report and released the correct information on their Twitter account.
Additionally, it is imperative to carry out a thorough fact-check before publishing any story especially those concerning criminal activity. Journalists have a greater obligation to investigate stories that potentially involve victims. It is crucial to vet different sources and understand the claim before drawing any conclusions. According to a statement released by Readers’ Editor at The Hindu, no attempt was made to reach out to the person who sent the WhatsApp video to check its authenticity. Furthermore, there are an array of questions which a journalist should ask themselves - how many sources do you have and have you verified everything about their story that can be verified? The work was done by Chaubey in The Hindu could have been avoided by carrying out a thorough search on the internet or by speaking to multiple bystanders at the Railway platform. Additionally, since the story was not vetted properly, the author could have written it in a safe manner by using words such as “claims, ” “allegedly, ” “reportedly” or “appears to be. ” Most news organizations place importance on original reporting and consider using a wire copy or aggregating information from credible news organizations when timeliness is crucial. In a major news event, most readers will soon forget who broke the story first but at the same time, they are less likely to forget the inaccuracy reported. On sourcing information, The Washington Post highlights that “When making these judgments, we should not necessarily conclude that the information being reported elsewhere is true based on the fact that it is being reported by more than one news outlet. ” The story by The Hindu was picked up by other organizations based on the credibility of The Hindu and past experience of relying on them.
Conclusion
Based on the above-mentioned points, I do not think it was right on the part of The Hindu to publish story especially considering that all facts had not been verified to be the best possible measure. Furthermore, I strongly think that instead of taking down the story completely, an organization as established as The Hindu should have kept the story on the website, and inserted an addendum. The addendum could have included the apology, a justification for how the entire process of publishing and promoting the story took place and a note directly from the writer. In the last few years, there has been a rapid transition to 24-hour cable news where information is expected to instantaneous. During a breaking news environment, the constantly accelerating news cycle increases the risk of errors and hence, it is crucial to verify and fact-check the information on hand. One must remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.
