Of Seychelles' Vaccination Drive, COVID-19 Outbreak and A Temple!

By Gajanan Khergamker

CNN, while reporting about how Seychelles, despite 60 per cent of its population being vaccinated, continues to register a rise in the number of infections, displays an image of 'a man outside Arul Mihu Navasakthi Vinayagar Temple in Seychelles' capital Victoria.' That the temple has absolutely nothing to do with the story is conveniently glossed over. If this isn't Hinduphobic reportage, what is?

MEDIA BIAS: This image used in the CNN report, depicting a man standing outside a Hindu temple in Seychelles, reeks of bias

For the record, of the 98,862 residents of Seychelles, most are Christians, with 82 per cent of the population adhering to Roman Catholicism. Two per cent of the population practices Hinduism while one per cent practices Islam.

CNN's negative portrayal of Hinduism is legendary to say the least: Right from the premiering of ‘Believer with Reza Aslan’, a six-episode “spiritual adventures series”, exploring the facts and myths behind the Aghori, a mystical Hindu sect known for extreme rituals down to reportage on how 'In secular India, it's getting tougher to be Muslim' and the usual Modi-bashing vitriolic in editorials.

Whether it's the blame garnered by the Kumbh Mela in India triggering the outbreak of the second wave or, stretched beyond logic, a man standing outside Seychelles' 'only' Hindu temple in Victoria indicative of the 'failure' of an overwhelming vaccination drive, the hatred is more than evident. 

In India, the Freedom of Expression and Secularism are regularly propped as defences. While one is a right considered fundamental to democracy the other is a borrowed concept and applied to Indian context but deftly at convenience.

The bias of a media persistent with its hatred, despite being called out over and over again, continues with its tirade. The line between objective editorial and political patronage has been blurred into oblivion at local levels, national fora and across borders. CNN is just a case in point.

Concurrently, the most pertinent issue in question here would be the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issuing a statement permitting fully vaccinated people to stop wearing masks outdoors and avoid wearing them indoors in most places. 

Fully immunised people will not need to physically distance in most places, said CDC, even as experts warned against the move. The writer, in this case, missed underlining the most obvious lesson of them all. US is braced to go completely mask-free having vaccinated 36 per cent of the country's population. And, CNN thought of using an image of a temple with the story, instead! Never mind the stark absence of relevance.

This is not the first time CNN has indulged in such insidious reportage and will surely not be the last. That disclaimer of it being 'a personal opinion of the writer and not of CNN', skewed as ever, does not absolve the publication of the choice of the 'writer' in question. Try writing a rejoinder and watch the self-styled 'world leader' ignore it...hook, line and sinker!

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