The Local Media in Imphal Is Letting Biases Creep into Reporting

Misrepresentation of the conflict and a lack of fact-checking has wider repercussions and can come in the way of ensuring peace in Manipur.

A fire destroyed 17 houses in Zomi Villa, a multicultural neighbourhood in West Imphal district of Manipur. Photo: Yaqut Ali

L. Anthony Doungel, The WIre : It has been over 100 days since the violent ethnic clash between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities broke out in Manipur, leaving at least 170 people dead and thousands homeless. While the country celebrated its 77th Independence Day with full vigour, in a part of the country deemed insignificant by the powers that be, people were buried in memories of lost loved ones and houses looted and burnt.

While the government must be questioned on reining in the ongoing crisis, the role of the Imphal valley-based local media cannot be ignored. With a ban on the internet ever since the ethnic clash began, these local media groups have basically been the sole source of information in the valley and beyond. This calls for principled and ethical reporting that goes beyond one’s ethnicity. Did the valley-based local media fail to do so or were they able to rise above their own ethnic lines? Unfortunately, the lack of fact-checking and an ethnic bias have resulted in several instances of misreporting that has fuelled the violence even more.

During a protest in Churachandpur days before the onset of the current violence, a local news reporter from ISTV channel was seen referring to the protestors speaking in a Paite Kuki-Zo dialect as “people speaking in a Myanmarese language”. After furore from the Kuki Zo community, ISTV was quick to correct itself. While this wasn’t an isolated case before the violence, cases of misreporting have spiked after the onset of the violence, with no accountability and course correction whatsoever as long as what is said fits a certain narrative.

In the last week of May, which saw several clashes in Sugnu and surrounding areas, the local media actively reported about one side of the story. Several Kuki Zo villages were burnt down in the clash but as per reports of The Sangai Express, this was reduced to “some Kuki houses” – while Kukis were accused of burning hundreds of houses belonging to Meiteis. In the early morning of June 9, militants dressed in army uniform ambushed Khoken, a Kuki village killing, three villagers, including a 67-year-old elderly woman who was praying in the church at the time.  An Imphal-based media house, HY News, called the dead civilians “Kuki militants” and even went on to call the elderly woman a “Sniper Shooter”.

In another tragic incident on June 13 in the Khamenlok area where Kukis are dominant, Meitei militias numbering in thousands, after burning down several Kuki Zo villages, were ambushed leading to several casualties. Elite TV reported the event as “Suspected Kuki militants gunned down 13 local village volunteers at Khamenlok”. Census data from 2011 shows Khamenlok village comprises 100% ST population. So what were these “village volunteers” doing in a Kuki Zo tribal village?

In yet another incident, in a goodwill gesture, Kuki Zo volunteers handed over five Meitei civilians to the Jat Regiment, but the same gesture was reported by the Imphal Times as “4 AR personnels and 20 JAT successfully rescued 5 Meitei civilians who were abducted by Kuki miscreants”. On a July 23 incident in the Bishnupur-Churachandpur bordering area, Sangai Express was seen misreporting the incident as “Kuki militants with hundreds of their associates… and set the Children Treasure High School on fire”. An impartial report on the same incident by The Times of India mentions that the owner of the school was Liankhothang Vaiphei, a Kuki Zo individual. Isn’t it absurd to think someone would burn his own school?

In a recent case of fabricated reporting, Imphal Free Press on August 13 said, “A deadly clash reportedly broke out between Kuki and Paite militants…”, there has been no such incident and the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum also had to release a statement refuting such fabricated reports.

These are a few of the countless instances of half-truths and misreporting by the Imphal-based local media.

While these few instances of biased reporting are already doing enough harm, little do we realise the wider negative implications of such reports that get published without fact-checking. I want to highlight one instance with a much larger implication, in which several Imphal-based local media groups such as E-Pao, The Sangai Express and The People’s Chronicle seem to have taken at face value a Facebook post dated August 4 from a climate activist, Licypriya Kangujam. The post claims the activist has gotten an RTI reply regarding the “Anglo Kuki War” filed on June 17, 2023. In the post, the account holder has said, “I filed an RTI under RTI Act 2005… to clear doubts on the fake Anglo-Kuki war. There is no such incident happened in the history of India.”

E-Pao reports the same social media post as “The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in response to an RTI application, has stated that no Anglo-Kuki war occurred in Manipur… Out of the 62, there are only four freedom fighters from Kuki community who received pension scheme of MHA called Samman Pension under Swatantrata Sainik Samman Yojana (SSSY).” After further research and fact checking, it was found that the RTI reply had told the applicant to refer to the MHA website for the SSSY pension beneficiary list for freedom fighters. While there were 62 beneficiaries in the SSSY list up to September 30, 2010 for which there is no further information on each beneficiary, there is in fact a recent list from 2022 in which there are 13 active SSSY beneficiaries from Manipur, 11 of whom belong to the Kuki Zo community and not four as reported by the Imphal-based local media. With regards to the “Anglo Kuki war”, though there are disagreements on whether to call it a war or a rebellion, it certainly isn’t a fake event as reported by the local media. The RTI reply does not contain information specific to the Anglo Kuki war (it is typical for RTIs to furnish incomplete information) and it certainly does not say it did not happen. Records of the same can be found with the Ministry of Culture, Government of India and one can even find mention of names of freedom fighters such as Enjakhup Khollou, Chengjapao Doungel, Mangpithang Kipgen and several others.

Sourcing information from social media without fact-checking, such as in the instance above, has several negative implications. It has been found that on certain digital platforms like Wikipedia, such unfounded local media reports have been included as citations to shape the narrative according to certain vested interests. The Wikipedia page for the said event has recently been edited numerous times based on these local media reports that are often untrue. A systemic reshaping of narratives is made possible due to the lack of digital literacy in certain disadvantaged communities. Therefore, it becomes pertinent to understand the wider repercussions of such irresponsible reporting.

Another issue is that the term “Kuki militants” came in vogue with the current ethnic clash in Manipur, whereby the local media have resorted to the mass branding of all Kuki Zo village defence volunteers as Kuki militants. The Kuki Zos have accused the Meiteis of mass branding them as “illegal immigrants”, “poppy cultivators” and so on. While there can be certain anomic elements who might label a community based on stereotypes or narratives of those in power, the role of the valley-based local media in mass branding a community makes one question why they are not fulfilling their roles.

The local media is the only source of information for the many in Manipur, especially in the valley. If these organisations demonise a certain community, it will make peace harder to achieve. Instead, projecting the sufferings and misdeeds of both communities can help readers and viewers introspect and get the dice rolling for societal peace.

L. Anthony Doungel is a techie working at an MNC, often engrossed in sociopolitics to pass the time.