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2G scam sideshow: Netizens lambast high-profile journalists
NEW DELHI: The people are showing who the boss is. The weapon in their hands is the internet, which, in the last five days, has seen frantic activism against "power-brokering" by journalists in collusion with corporate groups and top government functionaries. It all began with the publication of sensational tapes related to the 2G spectrum scam by two magazines over the weekend.
Two high-profile journalists, Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, whose names figure in the tapes, have also been internet and TV celebrities of sorts. But their images have taken a severe battering online since the Open and Outlook magazines published on their websites the tapes of their separate conversations with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia.
In the tapes, they are heard promising help for her cause of getting A Raja the telecom portfolio again in the UPA 2 government by talking to their Congress contacts. (The tapes can be accessed here and here .)
The tapes, said to be phone taps made by the income-tax department, contain conversations that Radia, whose clients include two leading telecom companies, had with NDTV group editor Barkha Dutt and Hindustan Times columnist and advisory editorial director Vir Sanghvi, among others, in the runup to government formation at the Centre in 2009. The tapes are now annexures in a Supreme Court petition filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan seeking the prosecution of Raja, who was forced to quit as telecom minister a few days ago.
Reacting to the tapes, both Sanghvi and Barkha have described their interactions with Radia as legitimate news-gathering activity. However, this hasn't cut much ice with the online world. The comments posted by netizens on numerous websites give a deep insight into their psychology and show how cyber-heroes can be made to bite the dust overnight. Here are some examples of what netizens have been doing:
" Can you please take BARKHA off air " on Facebook has more than 5,000 fans; " I hate Barkha Dutt " has more than 1,500 and " Barkhagate " more than 1,200 fans. " Barkha Dutt: powerbrokering stops here " has more than 300 fans. On Twitter, "#barkhagate" and "Bharka" have been two of the top five trending topics, with about 10 posts every minute on the subject. One frequently retweeted tweet on Wednesday was "Nira Radia grilled for 8 hours when ll Barkha dutt n Vir Sanghvi ll join her in jail?" The top Google search that starts with the word "barkha" is "barkha dutt nira radia", not "barkha dutt" or just "barkha". Then, there are online posts like "we need to teach the media who the real boss is ... we the people". ("We the People" is the name of Barkha's show on NDTV.)
YouTube returns 33 search results for "barkha radia tapes", the most popular of which has been heard by visitors more than 67,000 times. Wikipedia now has a Radia tapes controversy page .
The story has grabbed the attention of the international media - Wall Street Journal has run a news article and at least five blog posts on the subject ( Does the Buck Stop with Barkha Dutt? , Oh Vir, What Can the Matter Be? , My Journalistic Code of Ethics , Q&A: The State of Indian Journalism and Phone Taps Draw Media Into 2G Spotlight ). Others news sites that have covered it include Washington Post , Chicago Independent Press , International Business Times , Gulf News , Arab News and Pakistan's Dawn .
"India's fiercely competitive and hungry free press has become the rising nation's watchdog, unearthing a long list of banking scandals, real estate scams and, most recently, extensive government corruption during the international Commonwealth Games. But in recent days, Indian journalists have also been accused of wrongdoing, including having inappropriate conversations with a corporate lobbyist and acting more like power brokers in recordings released as part of an investigation into an alleged high-stakes swindle - considered the biggest scandal to hit the new India," says the Washington Post article.
"Twitter has played an important role in launching what has become an international conversation on the issue, with the Indian diaspora weighing in," the newspaper writes.
If you have missed the details online, here is a recap:
Raja's dealings as telecom minister had begun to emerge in the months leading up to the controversial award of 2G spectrum in January 2008. So much so that when the second UPA government was being formed after the May 2009 Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were said to have been opposed to the DMK-nominated minister retaining telecom.
That he managed to do so was widely - and for most part, correctly - ascribed to the unflinching support of DMK boss M Karunanidhi and his daughter Kanimozhi. The Congress, it was then said, had no option but to accept its coalition partner's choice.
What wasn't widely known was the role played by corporate groups and Niira Radia in working the back channels to ensure that Raja remained where he was in UPA 1: telecom.
Intercepts of Radia' phone conversations with Barkha and Sanghvi are in particular focus. Many more tapes have emerged of conversations between the lobbyist and people in Corporate India, the
media (including this group's newspapers), the bureaucracy, as well as others.
Barkha and Sanghvi have defended their conversations saying that, as journalists, it's only natural for them to talk to everyone.
"Radia was a valid news source for DMK camp. She gave info on Karunanidhi, and sought my analysis on what Cong may do next. Valid journalism," Barkha has tweeted . "I wd say that the sharing of info to
get more info in a fast moving story is not wrong," she has said in another tweet.
Sanghvi writes on his website : "While gathering news, journalists talk to a wide variety of sources from all walks of life, especially when a fast-moving story is unfolding. Out of a desire to elicit more information from these sources, we are generally polite. I received many calls from different sources during that period. In no case did I act on those requests as anybody in the government will know."
Hindustan Times has sought to distance itself from Sanghvi , saying that the views expressed in the Counterpoint column are Sanghvi's own.
NDTV has stood by Barkha and said, "In the pursuit of news and information, journalists talk to an array of people from all professional backgrounds...To caricature the professional sourcing of information as 'lobbying' is not just baseless, but preposterous." "These are unsubstantiated, baseless and defamatory allegations and we reserve the right to take appropriate action," it affirms. Open has been quick to respond. " Open magazine is sure of its content, which is why it decided to run the story. ... it has no interest in participating in any smear campaign against a well-known journalist. The cover story is self-evident and anybody who has read it can see very clearly that there have been no 'unsubstantiated, baseless or defamatory' allegations," Open Media's publisher R Rajmohan writes on Facebook .
Radia's firm, Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, has issued a statement calling the allegations "unverified and unsubstantiated".
According to media observers, while most of the conversations between the lobbyist and journalists are nothing more than just conversations that take place in the course of a day, a few - particularly those around the 2G scam - appear to hint at attempts at power-broking and lobbying.
Says one observer, "On any given day, we all say things - about people in public life, colleagues, possibly even friends and family - that would embarrass us if such conversations were made public. But that doesn't make it incriminating. And you needn't even be a journalist, or anyone of consequence, to say such things. If anything, making such conversations public constitutes invasion of privacy and is unethical.
The fear is that this could divert attention from what's really wrong."
At the same time, he adds, "If the media can defend sting operations and say the public have a right to know, then the public too has a right to know if journalists are indulging in extra-journalistic practices such as fixing deals and meetings - particularly if money has changed hands. It shouldn't misuse the access it enjoys. The media needs to measure up to the same standards it expects of people in public life."
Some excerpts from the tapes:
"What do you want me to tell them (Congress)? Tell me. I'll talk to them." - Barkha Dutt
"Who do you want Congress to talk to? Karunanidhi? I'll speak to Ahmed Patel." - Vir Sanghvi
"When it came to spectrum, they went to Raja and paid him a bribe and got spectrum allocated." - Niira Radia
Read more: 2G scam sideshow: Netizens lambast high-profile journalists - The Times of India 2G scam sideshow: Netizens lambast high-profile journalists - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The people are showing who the boss is. The weapon in their hands is the internet, which, in the last five days, has seen frantic activism against "power-brokering" by journalists in collusion with corporate groups and top government functionaries. It all began with the publication of sensational tapes related to the 2G spectrum scam by two magazines over the weekend.
Two high-profile journalists, Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, whose names figure in the tapes, have also been internet and TV celebrities of sorts. But their images have taken a severe battering online since the Open and Outlook magazines published on their websites the tapes of their separate conversations with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia.
In the tapes, they are heard promising help for her cause of getting A Raja the telecom portfolio again in the UPA 2 government by talking to their Congress contacts. (The tapes can be accessed here and here .)
The tapes, said to be phone taps made by the income-tax department, contain conversations that Radia, whose clients include two leading telecom companies, had with NDTV group editor Barkha Dutt and Hindustan Times columnist and advisory editorial director Vir Sanghvi, among others, in the runup to government formation at the Centre in 2009. The tapes are now annexures in a Supreme Court petition filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan seeking the prosecution of Raja, who was forced to quit as telecom minister a few days ago.
Reacting to the tapes, both Sanghvi and Barkha have described their interactions with Radia as legitimate news-gathering activity. However, this hasn't cut much ice with the online world. The comments posted by netizens on numerous websites give a deep insight into their psychology and show how cyber-heroes can be made to bite the dust overnight. Here are some examples of what netizens have been doing:
" Can you please take BARKHA off air " on Facebook has more than 5,000 fans; " I hate Barkha Dutt " has more than 1,500 and " Barkhagate " more than 1,200 fans. " Barkha Dutt: powerbrokering stops here " has more than 300 fans. On Twitter, "#barkhagate" and "Bharka" have been two of the top five trending topics, with about 10 posts every minute on the subject. One frequently retweeted tweet on Wednesday was "Nira Radia grilled for 8 hours when ll Barkha dutt n Vir Sanghvi ll join her in jail?" The top Google search that starts with the word "barkha" is "barkha dutt nira radia", not "barkha dutt" or just "barkha". Then, there are online posts like "we need to teach the media who the real boss is ... we the people". ("We the People" is the name of Barkha's show on NDTV.)
YouTube returns 33 search results for "barkha radia tapes", the most popular of which has been heard by visitors more than 67,000 times. Wikipedia now has a Radia tapes controversy page .
The story has grabbed the attention of the international media - Wall Street Journal has run a news article and at least five blog posts on the subject ( Does the Buck Stop with Barkha Dutt? , Oh Vir, What Can the Matter Be? , My Journalistic Code of Ethics , Q&A: The State of Indian Journalism and Phone Taps Draw Media Into 2G Spotlight ). Others news sites that have covered it include Washington Post , Chicago Independent Press , International Business Times , Gulf News , Arab News and Pakistan's Dawn .
"India's fiercely competitive and hungry free press has become the rising nation's watchdog, unearthing a long list of banking scandals, real estate scams and, most recently, extensive government corruption during the international Commonwealth Games. But in recent days, Indian journalists have also been accused of wrongdoing, including having inappropriate conversations with a corporate lobbyist and acting more like power brokers in recordings released as part of an investigation into an alleged high-stakes swindle - considered the biggest scandal to hit the new India," says the Washington Post article.
"Twitter has played an important role in launching what has become an international conversation on the issue, with the Indian diaspora weighing in," the newspaper writes.
If you have missed the details online, here is a recap:
Raja's dealings as telecom minister had begun to emerge in the months leading up to the controversial award of 2G spectrum in January 2008. So much so that when the second UPA government was being formed after the May 2009 Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were said to have been opposed to the DMK-nominated minister retaining telecom.
That he managed to do so was widely - and for most part, correctly - ascribed to the unflinching support of DMK boss M Karunanidhi and his daughter Kanimozhi. The Congress, it was then said, had no option but to accept its coalition partner's choice.
What wasn't widely known was the role played by corporate groups and Niira Radia in working the back channels to ensure that Raja remained where he was in UPA 1: telecom.
Intercepts of Radia' phone conversations with Barkha and Sanghvi are in particular focus. Many more tapes have emerged of conversations between the lobbyist and people in Corporate India, the
media (including this group's newspapers), the bureaucracy, as well as others.
Barkha and Sanghvi have defended their conversations saying that, as journalists, it's only natural for them to talk to everyone.
"Radia was a valid news source for DMK camp. She gave info on Karunanidhi, and sought my analysis on what Cong may do next. Valid journalism," Barkha has tweeted . "I wd say that the sharing of info to
get more info in a fast moving story is not wrong," she has said in another tweet.
Sanghvi writes on his website : "While gathering news, journalists talk to a wide variety of sources from all walks of life, especially when a fast-moving story is unfolding. Out of a desire to elicit more information from these sources, we are generally polite. I received many calls from different sources during that period. In no case did I act on those requests as anybody in the government will know."
Hindustan Times has sought to distance itself from Sanghvi , saying that the views expressed in the Counterpoint column are Sanghvi's own.
NDTV has stood by Barkha and said, "In the pursuit of news and information, journalists talk to an array of people from all professional backgrounds...To caricature the professional sourcing of information as 'lobbying' is not just baseless, but preposterous." "These are unsubstantiated, baseless and defamatory allegations and we reserve the right to take appropriate action," it affirms. Open has been quick to respond. " Open magazine is sure of its content, which is why it decided to run the story. ... it has no interest in participating in any smear campaign against a well-known journalist. The cover story is self-evident and anybody who has read it can see very clearly that there have been no 'unsubstantiated, baseless or defamatory' allegations," Open Media's publisher R Rajmohan writes on Facebook .
Radia's firm, Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, has issued a statement calling the allegations "unverified and unsubstantiated".
According to media observers, while most of the conversations between the lobbyist and journalists are nothing more than just conversations that take place in the course of a day, a few - particularly those around the 2G scam - appear to hint at attempts at power-broking and lobbying.
Says one observer, "On any given day, we all say things - about people in public life, colleagues, possibly even friends and family - that would embarrass us if such conversations were made public. But that doesn't make it incriminating. And you needn't even be a journalist, or anyone of consequence, to say such things. If anything, making such conversations public constitutes invasion of privacy and is unethical.
The fear is that this could divert attention from what's really wrong."
At the same time, he adds, "If the media can defend sting operations and say the public have a right to know, then the public too has a right to know if journalists are indulging in extra-journalistic practices such as fixing deals and meetings - particularly if money has changed hands. It shouldn't misuse the access it enjoys. The media needs to measure up to the same standards it expects of people in public life."
Some excerpts from the tapes:
"What do you want me to tell them (Congress)? Tell me. I'll talk to them." - Barkha Dutt
"Who do you want Congress to talk to? Karunanidhi? I'll speak to Ahmed Patel." - Vir Sanghvi
"When it came to spectrum, they went to Raja and paid him a bribe and got spectrum allocated." - Niira Radia
Read more: 2G scam sideshow: Netizens lambast high-profile journalists - The Times of India 2G scam sideshow: Netizens lambast high-profile journalists - The Times of India
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