Umran Hussain
Fayaz Ahmad Aka “Fayaz Scorpio” has become a household name in Kashmir after his videos started making rounds on social media in which Fayaz can be seen asking questions in a quite unusual way to the authorities and sometimes contractors responsible for building infrastructure in his area.
Fayaz, an elected Deputy Sarpanch from Lysar Rafiabad shot to fame when he demanded personal security guards and a Scorpio vehicle from the administration, so that he can visit the area from where he was elected and inspect the ongoing developmental works.
Fayaz even promised jobs to more than a hundred youth from his block soon after he assumed charge as a deputy Sarpanch.
Perhaps, unaware of the jurisdiction and powers of a Panchayat representative, Fayaz started promising heaven’s for his voters which for obvious reasons sent netizens into a tizzy.
As usual, our so called journalists started visiting Fayaz Ahmad and shot videos of him while he spoke unnecessarily about the developmental projects and against the officers responsible for execution of works in his area.
Fearing consequences, father of Fayaz Ahmad recorded a video and requested the so called journalists and Facebook page admins not to upload videos of his son as he was mentally unsound and was unaware of whatever he speaks infront of the camera.
Opportunism has unfortunately taken over the factual journalism in Kashmir where people concentrate on the money they earn from social media than the real social issues which should have been highlighted instead.
Taking advantage of Fayaz Ahmad’s innocence, a few boys reportedly motivated him to own a Facebook page which till this report was filed had more than twenty thousand followers.
Whatever Fayaz does, whatever he speaks, where ever he goes, pops up on his Facebook page and his videos garner views in lakhs.
Even after knowing about the weak mental stability of Fayaz which his father made clear in his video, let aside the normal Facebook pages, some prominent journalists and news portals have started featuring Fayaz, clearly to gain TRP for them and the channels they own.
In one such recent incident, valley’s prominent journalist can be seen asking questions to Fayaz in a staged interview which went viral on social media with hundreds of Facebook pages uploading it.
Journalistic ethics are the common values that guide reporters. They lay out both the aspirations and obligations that journalists, editors, and others working in the field should follow to execute their work responsibly.
Journalism ethics have evolved over time. Most news organizations have their own written codes of ethics, as do professional membership bodies.
If a professional journalist or news organization transgresses these ethical standards, they will lose credibility and this is what journalism in the valley has stooped to, by unethically using mentally unsound people to increase the ratings and TRP’s of their news portals.
Umran Hussain is a blogger and writes for The Kashmir Radar. He can be mailed at umranhussainkr@gmail.com.
