When the mad race is on for the Television Rating Points among the television channels, the biggest casualty can be of media ethics. What else can one expect when 17 channels line for “one-on-one” interview with the anti-corruption leader Anna Hazare and each trying to outdo the other in their coverage of this man who has proved to be the biggest crowd puller and TRP getter?.
This blatant violation of journalistic ethics was witnessed in Ralegan Siddhi on 13th September at the hands of the top editors of news channels who were indulging in a virtual tug-of-war as to who should first get the chance to interview Anna and be first air the ” exclusive” interview.
The journalists who have reason to introspect their actions are not junior reporters but editors like Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN, Nikhil Wagale, Rahul Kanwal , Punya Prasun Bajpai and other senior journalists who had thronged at Padmavati Mandir, the venue of the interview and signed an embargo not to telecast the interview before six pm. But instead of honoring this gentlemen’s commitment ,they broadcast the news six hours before the embargo putting their other colleagues in problems and causing ugly scene in the venue.
The sad part is that this blatant violation of journalistic ethics happened in front of this very man who has emerged in the whole country as a man who was ready to die for the principles of honesty, transparency and morality.
On September 13, editors of the news channels were invited by the members of Team Anna for “exclusive interviews”. Editors who converged at the venue in the morning hours included Rajdeep Sardesai , the Editor-in-Chief of IBN18 Network , Nikhil Wagale the Editor IBN-Lokmat, Rahul Kanwal Executive Editor Headlines Today , Punya Prasun Bajpai , Anchor and Editor Zee News and many others. Channels who could not send their editors sent their senior correspondents. Barkha Dutt Managing Editor NDTV was the late comer who arrived in the noon.
The moment Anna Hazare came to the venue he was taken aback when he saw several channels had thronged the venue with their editors and had converted the whole campus of Padmavati Mandir into live sets with multiple cameras, editing equipments like mixers, reflectors , lights and other paraphernalias.
The problem before Anna was whom to give the interview first. Seen the commotion Anna Hazare refused to come out for the interview and sent a word to the journalists to decide among themselves as to who will be the first in the queue . This prompted the journalists to hammer out a solution. It was then mutually decided by the editors and the coordinator of Team Anna’s team that irrespective of who interviews Anna first, no one should telecast it before six pm. But unfortunately the embargo remained on paper.
The worst sufferers in this breach of embargo were the middle level journalists who were sent by their office along with the Outdoor Broadcast van to cover.
The first person to interview Anna Hazare was Rajdeep Sardesai followed by Punya Prasun Bajpai then Nikhil Wagle, Rahul Kanwal and then others. Each person was allotted a time of about half an hour to 45 minutes to interview Anna.
After interviewing Anna, Rajdeep and Wagle, both from the IBN group left the venue and were the first to air their interviews causing panic and anxiety among other TV reporters who were waiting for their turn to interview him.
As soon as the IBN group aired the interview, Zee and Aaj Tak also did the same. Those who were waiting for their turn were blaming the senior editors who breached embargo .
Rajdeep Sardesai when contacted refused to comment anything on the whole issue on the grounds that he does not want to enter into a public spat with his colleagues.
Nikhil Wagle, who heads the Marathi channel IBN-Lokmat when contacted said ” I don’t know anything about embargo. I am not a party to it. I know one thing that I had taken an appointment to interview Anna a week back and hence I deserved the first interview”. He denied breach of any ethics on the part of his channel.
Punya Prasun Bajpai, said ” It is true that I signed the embargo, but the whole idea of embargo was not of Anna Hazare’s coordinators, but our ( all tv journalists) own idea to smoothen things. But then it became a meaningless exercise when we realized that Barkha Dutt was going to come at around 2 pm while Arnab Goswami was going to have a SIM SAT with Anna at around 5 pm. What is the point of waiting for those who have not even come to cover?” he said.
Whether the senior journalists breached journalistic ethics by breaking the embargo or not is going to be a matter of debate. But one thing is sure that the whole thing has left a bad taste —- not only for the journalists but also for Anna Hazare.
