For once, it were the journalists themselves who were under scrutiny. So much so that even high-profile ones sitting behind the dais were not spared by others gathered at the city’s Press Club to discuss the issue of media ethics in the wake of the Niira Radia tapes in which several high-profile journalists have been caught talking to her in too cosy a manner.
Editors Guild president and the editor-in-chief of a television channel Rajdeep Sardesai sought to defend the conversations of two high-profile journalists with Ms Radia by saying that no quid pro quo had been proved and that people were being pronounced guilty before there being proof against them.
He was, however, told by a journalist that by saying so he was trying to justify the carrying of messages from a lobbyist to a political party.
Mr Sardesai also contended that the magazines that carried the Radia tape transcripts should have also taken the versions of the journalists whose conversations with the lobbyists have been carried.
Outlook editor Vinod Mehta — his magazine was one of two magazines that had carried the transcripts — responded by saying that in many major exposes like Watergate and Bofors this has not been done as the raw material itself is so compelling. Among other issues underscored by Mr Sardesai during the discussion was that of journalists being “co-opted into the system” instead of playing an “adversarial” role and how corporate India and politicians are willing to do anything to subvert the system.
Journalist Kuldip Nayar drew attention to the contract system of employment for journalists that most media houses have adopted over the years. the contract system has taken away from journalists the cover from the pulls and pressures that was provided by the Working Journalist Act, he noted.