George and Amal, really?

What a frenzy, what media hype is generated around the to-be wedding of George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin. Every newspaper, internet sites are buzzing with this news and publishing pictures of the famous pair.

All of us, especially the ladies are keenly observing this situation and giving their esteemed opinions even though nobody is even remotely related to either Amal or George, but we just can’t stop ourselves.

My close friend who is also an ardent fan of Clooney was very upset at the sudden news of his wedding, of course I too share her despair and we even decided to boycott Yahoo News because it always gives us unexpected updates.

However, after our long discussions on the pros and cons of Amal-George relationship we both agreed to give the couple not only our consent but also our blessings for a wonderful life ahead.

It is strange that we humans are quite keen on knowing about the lives and happenings of each other and especially if famous faces are involved then this curiosity is heightened to a great degree. However, I’m of the view that in these days our curiosities are unnecessarily heightened by media.

Humans are curious by nature and that’s why there has been amazing discoveries in science, medicine, laws of nature but what if this curiosity is deviated from productivity to ridiculousness.

Few years ago divorce news of Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt made the headlines on CNN. This particular information was of no relevance to either national or international affairs yet it was broadcasted.

Western media in the zeal to sell its magazines have forgotten the limits of privacy. There is a huge debate of what is public information and what comes under the domain of private. Some have set the limit that if a celebrity is at a public place then all his actions are worth recording and publishing.

However, it is evident that this limit was mostly exceeded beyond the measure of decency. Famous personalities were photographed in their homes and private gatherings and what is worst that we as consumers have developed abnormal interests into the lives of others.

Rupert Murdock’s Newspaper scandal where infamous and unauthorized tapping of Royal family and celebrities phone calls’ made headlines. His newspaper staff even bribed local police for illegal access to phone lines; however, even after strong evidence law enforcement agencies were careful in intervening.

It was only after they found evidence of recording phone calls of some public citizens like murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7/7 London bombings which resulted in public outcry, consequently the newspaper was discontinued.  

Media protection laws in USA and UK are so strong that mostly a celebrity gets penalized if he/she reacts to the invasion of their privacy. This virus has reached Indian media as well where even a slight sneeze by a famous film actor becomes a headline.

Unfortunately this ailment is also slowly reaching our media as well, though not related to our local celebrities but mostly the news content is filled with a Bollywood celebrity.

Having said that, it is also true that our media still sets some moral limits. It does not go beyond a certain limit of informing us about the personal lives of famous people.

We are in the process of developing, our laws especially the media legislation has a lot of scope to evolve and if our legislature (law-making bodies) take into consideration all the recent developments, growth of online generation, ups and downs of media laws we shall definitely come up with excellent legislation.

With all my prayers....

Sonya Syed. (Day 477)