Tale in the Sting

Sting operations dont happen in India alone. Nor are fake sting operations an exclusively Indian phenomenon. Such things happen everywhere in the world,including in the arguably more mature broadcast markets.

The most recent instance is the bogus report aired by Channel 7,Australia,on September 20, where one of its reporters,Mike Duffy,was shown buying an explosive detonating kit from a so-called illegal vendor in New Delhi and walking with it unchecked into the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,the most high-profile venue for the Commonwealth Games.

What happened after this report,however,is not too common in India. ABC Television,owned by national public broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation and rival of Channel 7,decided to investigate Duffys report because a team at the channel thought there was something not quite right about the story. And they were right.

The investigation,which entailed tracking down the said vendor,gathering details of security at Games venues from Delhi police and an Indian journalist,and few question-and-answer sessions with Duffy and his employer,revealed that it was essentially a sting operation full of inaccuracies and falsities.

Mike Duffy misled the vendor by giving him a fake name and purpose for the interest in the kit and the viewers, said Paul Barry,host,Media Watch,a regular show on ABC.

The Media Watch team examines those who work in,own or control the media,a practice sorely missing in the broadcast space in India. Sure,dubious reports and organisations have been pulled up in the past by peers,but mostly on internal industry platforms and in closed-door meetings.

While stressing that it is entirely an editorial call,G Krishnan,executive director and CEO,TV Today,says: 8230;only stories with a larger public interest should be treated in this matter,else it can become a case of one-upmanship. He,however,insists that there are several instances of media companies writing about each other. TV Today owns news channels such as Aaj Tak and Headlines Today.

Editor-in-chief,IBN 18 Network,Rajdeep Sardesai,however,says correcting others mistakes may not be a pleasant exercise to indulge in. As a journalist,as an editor,am I accountable for my work? Yes,I am. But am I responsible for somebody elses work,too? Maybe. But thats not a responsibility I am bound to, he says. IBN 18 Network,which runs channels such as CNN-IBN and IBN 7,is soon expected to launch a show that will critically examine news reports from across the industry.

Pointing out that in 1996-97,NDTV won the Asian Television Award for Best News Programme in Asia for a report that tore apart a flimsy story by BBC on Kashmir,Narayan Rao,Group CEO,NDTV,says: If it is something done in the line of a normal investigation,there is no reason why it should not be done.

There are no convincing answers yet for why it is still not an established practice. A section of the industry,however,feels media organisations not talking about each others editorial content is a good practice. Its a tricky road. Given the competition we have in the news space,an objective review of each others work may very well turn into a mud-slinging match, says a top executive of a leading channel.