India media scandal

Since the leak of the "Radia Tapes" that is making headlines in Indian news, the issue of journalistic ethics has once again come to the forefront.

In this case, the phones of Niira Radia, a corporate lobbyist in India were tapped in a case that was investigating the possibility of her evading taxes and the potentially illegal movement of funds in and out of India.

Approximately 100 tapes with 5,000 recordings of Radia were leaked by an unknown source and have been made public.

What makes this case very important is that these recorded phone calls expose many well known journalists and media personalities as people who were being influenced by powerful lobbyists such as Niira Radia and were bowing to their needs.

These conversations expose the unethical practice of `planting’ of stories by lobbyists whose vested interests are obvious, and journalists ready to throw to the winds the cardinal principles of journalism.

The conversations have Radia talking with business journalists about the gas pricing dispute between the Ambani brothers in India, mostly about favourable coverage for Mukesh Ambani, the older brother. In one conversation, Barkha Dutt, the group editor for New Delhi Television, a station I interned for in 2008, asks Niira Radia what she should tell her Congress contacts and what she shouldn't. In another conversation Vir Sanghvi, a famous reporter, writer and household name in India, asks what kind of story she wants him to do on the gas dispute between the two Ambani brothers.

What is shocking is that Radia was heard completely dictating the content and coverage of what certain newspapers should report on.

Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi are two journalists I grew up watching, reading, admiring and now I feel so let down and disappointed because in a country where people are so corrupt, these famous journalists were the one's we'd rely on to get some semblance of the truth. Because of the Radia Tapes controversy, I really wonder if most journalists, at least in India, are really as ethical as we hope they are. This case really is a real blow to the track record of the Indian media being one that is free, honest, ethical and accurate.