The Curious Case of Ashley do Rosario and Journalism in Goa
Mayabhushan
(Read out at seminar on Human Development and Good Governance: New Goals, New Horizons the Goa International Centre, Dona Paula this week)
The Curious Case
of Ashley do Rosario and Journalism in Goa
By Mayabhushan Nagvenkar
Disclosure: I have known Ashley do Rosario since 1999. We have been colleagues since 2000 in the Herald for a period of three years and then almost a decade later at the Gomantak Times, where I did freelance editing work. We have also been friends since, who meet and interact regularly. The purpose of this disclosure is to inform and make the reader this note aware of the nature of association between the author and the subject.
First… there are three things I’d like to put on record at the outset.
I am not here to whine and complain.
I am not here to push a brief.
I am not here to beg.
So what am I doing here? I am here to put down on paper and before you, what I believe, is a sorry chapter in the smallish canvas of journalism and the media industry in Goa. Because, while journalists record the contemporary histories of the lives and situations around them, the travails of journalists and the infected inflammations of this profession are rarely brought out formally in the public domain. This is one such attempt and ‘The Curious Case of Ashley do Rosario and journalism in Goa’ is a vehicle to make a broader comment on the state of journalism in Goa and the rapidly shrinking space for integrity and forthrightness.
Here’s what I know about Ashley. Ashley has been a journalist for about two decades now. He has spent a decade each in the two conventional editorial divisions of newspaper journalism; the news desk and reporting team.
Ashley was a deputy chief reporter at the Herald, back in 1999, when I first came to know him. He later worked as a deputy news editor at the Gomantak Times, where he virtually anchored the news production process.
From what I have come to know from Ashley and subsequent corroborations from sources in the media industry in Goa. There were three main flashpoints over the last several years, which have severely affected his career. They are however not in the order listed below and had very little to do with journalistic inadequacies or mal-journalism.
In 2003, he became a founding member of a newspaper employees union (along with me) seeking fair working conditions at the Herald. Later, he contested the last civic elections after putting in a legit leave of absence. He lost both. The elections with a not so pretty margin and the job. Third, his be-friending of me.
The one oft repeated reason which editors and newspaper managements in Goa give him for rejecting his job application, is his ‘voluble’ support and perceived involvement in an anonymous media critiquing blog I ran by the name of Penpricks. And he wasn’t even part of it.
Ashley has been virtually unemployed for the last four of the eight years. There are four daily English newspapers in Goa. One monthly news magazine. And several other news, feature and lifestyle magazines. But strangely there are no jobs to be had for him. Over the last few years, all publications which publish news content in the English language have issued public advertisements inviting applicants. There have been recruitments by the dozen. Ashley is still out in the cold.
Running concurrent to Ashley’s fortune is the shrinking of space for integrity in the journalistic expanse of Goa.
No profession is exempt from inadequacies and imperfections, be it a multi-national conglomerate which manufactures the brand of detergent you use or even the corner tea shop, which you frequent everyday. But what is special and significant about the industry of journalism is the impact it creates on you and your minds when you unfold your newspaper of flick on the television news channel.
It is journalism’s potential to inform and impress the minds of hundreds and thousands, which makes it imperative that the people and professionals who are a part of this industry, need to be up to scratch. And in the contemporary climate here in Goa, we are far from even fair.
While the news industry in Goa has grown more than considerably in size over the last decade, what with mushrooming television channels, prospects of new newspapers across the English and vernacular genre and a slew of magazines. What is also growing within the insides of this industry, is a tumour of ‘integrity and credibility’ deficit.
I am not isolating myself, from the picture I am speaking of. If I, as a part of the industry have been unable to speak of the ills within my profession, in time enough to let them come to such a pass, I too have leant a shoulder to the basket of shame, which a significant part of journalism has been reduced to in Goa.
While I have named Ashley here, there is another case I wish to highlight. For when one mentions one extreme pole of an issue, the mention of the other extreme, often gives the listener and reader the expanse of the problem.
I will not be using the individual’s name here for obvious reasons, even though the person I refer to exists. Wilful journalistic indiscretions unfortunately do not attract a legal penalty in our criminal justice system, but naming such folks can bring the law to your doorstep.
The other story is that of Pats.
Pats, like Ashley, has been around a bit. He’s been a
vernacular journalist for perhaps slightly less than a score years. As a news
writer he is prolific. But then Pats has been the poster boy for journalistic
corruption in Goa in the recent years. And that had not been a deterrent for
any of his media employers until some time back. Because along with news, he
would bring back the moolah in form of cracking deals with ministers for
special advertising supplements for the newspaper and regularly taking ‘paid
news‘ contracts from folks who need the publicity. But then one fine day,
somewhere, some scale of balance tilted.
An enquiry was initiated by his employers. Pats’ act of using a ruling Congress politician’s credit card for wardrobe shopping at a city store was to prove his undoing. Another instance of corruption, which the management ‘stumbled’ upon, was his taking Rs 50,000 from an aspiring election candidate in the 2007 polls. The management discovered this, when they themselves approached the candidate for donations a few days later, for a trust operated by a religious Guru.
A subsequent enquiry revealed one story after another. Pats had invested in mining trucks. In real estate projects running into millions. The final straw it turns out was that Pats hadn’t made a significant withdrawal from his salary account for a significant period.
So Pats was asked to leave.
And… was re-employed within a month. The cycle of corruption as far as Pats was concerned continues.
Like I have said earlier, stories of corruption, administrative imperfection, unfair decision making are the same everywhere in every profession, every workplace, even in every home.
But over the last few years, the balance of ‘right and wrong’ has tipped for the worse as far as journalism in Goa is concerned. The bad eggs have multiplied considerably and there has been no attempt been made by the journalists, their managements, as well as mentors, to weed the bad ones out. And the basket has begun to smell.
Footnote: The purpose of my speaking to you was in order to tell you this story. If, at all your interest, is a cleaner and accountable media do spare a moment to speak to those who matter in the industry, journalists in upper hierarchies, editors, newspaper managments. Ask them why aren’t there any accountability standards in place in Goa? Ask them what action has not been taken against journalists whose names crop up time and again in controversies and whose stories appear dubious to you. And of course, verify the contents of my story on your own end before you believe it. Because the case is certainly curious… the curious case of Ashley Do Rosario and journalism in Goa.
(Read out at seminar on Human Development
and Good Governance: New Goals, New Horizons the Goa International Centre, Dona Paula this week)
--
--
Mayabhushan Nagvenkar
1392, Anjuna, Bardez, Goa
pin code 403509
# 09420976862
http://www.ardh-satya.blogspot.com
http://www.ganimikawa.blogspot.com
Gary Azavedo
Dear Bhushan,
First, let me point out that in your story you have forgotten to mention about Goa's political weekly that I work for the Goan Observer among the score of other periodicals and magzaines published in the state. But I do agree yours is indeed a very interesting tale of Ash and journalism in Goa.
Of course, my former colleague, Mr Ashley do Rosario is most welcome to approach my editor, Mr Rajan Narayan (his former boss). Since Mr Rajan Narayan is definitely willing to offer Mr Ashley do Rosario certain responsibilities that the senior journalist, Mr Ashley do Rosario could meet and discuss with Mr Rajan Narayan in person as soon as possible.
Thanking you,
GARY AZAVEDO. |
Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا
--
FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436 f...@goa-india.org
Books from Goa,1556 http://scr.bi/Goa1556Books
Audio recordings (mostly from Goa): http://bit.ly/GoaRecordings