Arif,Taufiq and Gudia

There was a great furore in the media over the lives of the above mentioned people.Arif,a soldier in the Indian Army had gone missing in September'99 and had been declared a deserter.He was recently released by the Pakistani forces which had captured him when he had inadvertently crossed over into their territory.
Meantime,his wife of ten days Gudia, had waited for nearly four years before marrying Taufiq.When her first husband Arif was released she was pregnant with her second husband's child and was in a dilemma as to whether she should go back to Arif or stay on with Taufiq.
The above is a very very personal family matter and should have been resolved without any interference either from women activist groups or religious clergy and most importantly the fourth estate.And yet mincemeat was made of this issue by both the print and electronic media. As the world has progressed it has become more obvious that we as a civilisation have lost the ability to be 'sensitive'.
Today newspapers have ceased to measure the gravity of the articles or the information that they are publishing.Far from being a medium of self expression they have become a victim of marketing gimmicks that have spread their wings over this bastion of human solidarity and impartiality.Reporters are no more than vultures ready to swoop down on carrion and transform it into a source of fame and lucre.
Living in a society do we have the right to pry into other's personal affairs ? We have become a congregation of voyeurs who derive great pleasure in knowing how many women an actor has slept with in the last few months or why an actress has tattoos on the most intimate organs of her body.We are fascinated by the virility and impotency of famous personalities as if they were ads for 'Viagra'.
As a responsible media a news network should always judge how a piece of news would affect the person concerned.Agreed for ending social evils like dowry,child marriages etc. the concerned people should certainly step in.But with great power comes great responsibility and reponsibility does not mean turning into a publication of the Paparazzi.