At Newslaundry, we don’t usually do campaigns. And by campaign, I mean specifically advocate a certain call to action for a cause that is also a story and part of the news cycle. That’s because it can be a slippery slope. While news organisations must have a value system and moral positions, campaigning for a specific outcome, however noble, can turn it into an advocacy platform.
In the process, you might get activists rather than journalists. Now, both have a very important role in any society, especially a democracy. But they’re very different roles (trust me, I’ve been both) and merging the two can create complications that adversely affect work.
We’ve made one exception in the last 12 years of our existence. But that’s because it was existential.
In 2013, we launched a campaign called Internet Inqalab against Section 66A of the Information Technology Act. Section 66A was enacted through an amendment under the Manmohan Singh government. By 2012, under the (mis)guidance of then IT Minister Kapil Sibal, it reached its full draconian power.
So, why’d we make an exception?
Because under Section 66A, a news portal like Newslaundry and any digital journalist could be shut down or locked up. The act had wide and vague powers that could be interpreted in any way an enforcement agency, especially the police, chose – to arrest or initiate action for anything from an article to a tweet to a Facebook post. We had a specific campaign calling for its recall because it was an existential issue, not just for Newslaundry but for the digital ecosystem in general.
Internet Inqalab ensured we ran afoul of the UPA government (and we are always in an adversarial position with all governments, as news organisations should be). Many of those who are super-critical of the UPA government today did not utter a word then. We didn’t hear a peep out of them. No one had the guts to run such a campaign, while routinely running campaigns for far less urgent causes.
Now, 11 years later, we’re making our second exception because this too is an existential issue. Not just for Newslaundry but for all our lives, especially the very young and the very old.
For pretty much the entire year, much of north India breathes in air that is severely unhealthy. The average resident is likely to lose 5.4 years of life expectancy. For two to three months a year, air quality between 50 and 100 times higher than what is considered ‘safe’. It’s noxious if not outright poisonous, a public health pandemic that impacts tens of millions of people across the country, even as it’s the National Capital Region that gets most attention.
This is an existential issue. It impacts the lives, well-being and overall development of an entire generation. It impacts our brain activity, cognitive function, respiratory function, heart function and reproduction function (I’m sure I have your attention now). Imagine what it’s like for a baby born into this gas chamber. Breathe this through childhood, become an adult where every breath does more damage to their body and mind. With these kinds of odds stacked against them, what hope do our children have?
This noise about it being a demographic dividend is a nonstarter. It’s bogus if entire generations are living their lives on compromised breaths. Should we just sit back and watch our kids die sooner than they must?
This is why it’s existential, not just for me and for Newslaundry, but for you and your loved ones.
That is why we will run this campaign throughout the year. We’ll have shows, articles, calls to action and many innovative techniques, for advocacy and storytelling, to force those with executive power to fix this. Not just for the two months when the air is poison, but through the year when it’s still terrible but we accept it as normal. This isn’t normal, this isn’t acceptable, and this isn’t fair – for you or for your children.
Please support our team on this. We are dedicating resources through the year – reporters, producers, editors, designers, advisors – even though this story isn’t part of the news cycle for much of the year. There will be other issues – politics, elections, corruption, hate crimes, horrific violence, superstar weddings, unreasonable arrests, life-altering statues commissioned and collapsed, ditto to flyovers and bridges – but we will stick with this story regardless.
Because unless we do and unless more people join us, this problem, which should have been an emergency years ago, will not find a resolution. Unless we shine a light on all that is wrong and advocate for its improvement, it will not change. We will hold power to account, ask questions, abandon politeness if we must. We will do our bit. We need you to do yours.
Join us. Support the team. It’s your team too, and we have to make this happen together. This won’t be sponsored by soap, energy bars or sarkari departments. This will be sponsored by you, for your well-being, for my team’s well-being. We have to pitch in together.
We’re bringing our full journalistic commitment to the table. What commitment do I have from you? Help us with suggestions and advice. Make sure the team doesn’t run out of resources. It’s a fight we have to fight together. Chip in and support public-funded journalism because unless YOU pay, news will never be about YOUR interests.
Click here and support us. And email us at submissions@newslaundry.com to send us your ideas and feedback.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
