Journalists in 2G tapes will face

PAC: Joshi
This news article got published in TheStatesman dated 16th Jan 2011.It brings into
light the role of two important pillars of Indian Society – The Journalists and the
Politicians. They both have a very vital role towards India as a nation and towards
the society on the whole.And when any one of this falters in their code of conduct ,
very sadly in this particular case both have led down the nation, the whole system
of the society becomes questionable making the roots of society go even weaker.
Two important roles where ethics should play the guiding role is under the scrutiny
in this particular case of 2G scam.

This analysis aims at bringing the facts and the decline in the ethical code of
conduct of the journalists and the politicians.

The 2G spectrum scam involved officials in the government of India illegally

undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses,
which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. According to a
report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General based on money
collected from 2G licenses, the loss to the exchequer was 
Rs.176,379 crore (US$38.27 billion). The issuing of the 2G licenses occurred in
2008, but the scam came to public notice when the Indian Income Tax
Department investigated political lobbyist Niira Radia and the Supreme Court of
India took Subramaniam Swamy's complaints on record.

Some of the many conversations recorded over 300 days were leaked to the media.
The intense controversy around the leaked tapes, became known in the media as
the Radia tapes controversy. The tapes featured some explosive conversations
between Politicians, Journalists and Corporate Houses. Politicians
from Karunanidhi to Arun Jaitley, journalists like Barkha Dutt and Vir
Sanghvi and Industrial groups like the Tata's were either participants or mentioned
in these explosive tapes.

Media persons involved and lobbyists involved :

 Nira Radia, a former airline entrepeneur turned corporate lobbyist whose
conversations with politicians and corporate entities were recorded by the
government authorities and leaked creating the Nira Radia tapes controversy
 Barkha Dutt, an NDTV journalist alleged to have lobbied for A. Raja's
appointment as minister
 Vir Sanghvi, a Hindustan Times editor alleged to have edited articles to
reduce blame in the Nira Radia tapes

It seems India , the republic is now on sale after the alleged involvement of
senior journalists in the scam. None would have ever imagined the role of
senior journalists in this Scam of the decade.Barkha Dutt.a NDTV
reporter/anchor/group editor could aptly be given the title “ broker
dealer” .She played a role to bring in Raja into the ministry.And incidently ,
she is Padma Shri Awardee. The whole ethical standards which marks
Journalism has come into the question.

Indian norms of journalistic conduct quotes :” The fundamental objective of

journalism is to serve the people with news, views, comments and
information on matters of public interest in a fair, accurate unbiased, sober
and decent manner” And in this case , Vir Sanghvi have gone past the set
standards and have worked for their own benefit .In this particular
involvement of Sanghvi , he seems to be engrossed in Unbridled aspirations
and ambitions that could have guided his actions.

The whole ethics of Journalism is built on Accuracy and fairness and by

these actions of journalists , the entire profession is put on cards .

A.Raja , Arun Shorie and Pramod Mahajan are under the scanner for their
roles in 2G scam.This brings into the limelight the sad plight of the biggest
democracy of the world.The nation is so sadly scarce of politicians on whose
shoulders the development of India can be rested.Their hands are so
muddled that even a nother Mahatma Gandhi could not put them straight on
the much needed Ethics upliftment.
Policticians are known to be low on ethics and in this particular case
Mr.Raja have proved it right again.Becaus of his unbridled aspirations he
has amassed a lot of cash surpassing his basic duties which he has towards
the nation.

At last, I would salute J. Gopikrishnan of The Pioneer, a humble journalist

who was grudgingly handed a low-paying job after showing up in the Indian
capital from the backwaters of Kerala. He is the one who really broke the 2G
spectrum scam and the one who unearthed a million details that help expose
what most agree is independent India’s biggest scam.

So there are still people who could be counted on , the shoulders of whose
are strong enough with strength coming from strong ethical behavior but
then there are others like Mr.Raja, journalists whose continuous declining
standards of ethics are surely a cause of concern for the whole nation .