Gurpreet Dissertation Print Copy 1

8/6/2019 Gurpreet Dissertation Print Copy 1

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this project is to study the CAUSE AND EFFECT OF TRIAL BY MEDIA

WITH REFERENCE TO CWG CONTROVERSY

The objective of this project is to study:

The need for trial by media The outcomes of trial by media Whether the media influences public and official opinion

The research is done through Interview Method, where the researcher interviewed some

people for the media industry. The researcher then compiled all the data and studied it vividly

to come up with a concrete conclusion.


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DECLARATION

I, Gurpreet Kaur Sidhu, declare that this dissertation TRIAL BY MEDIA: CAUSE AND

EFFECT WITH REFERENCE TO THE CWG CONTROVERSYis an authentic study

done by me. This dissertation is submitted to the Convergence Institute of Media,

Management, and Information Technology Studies (COMMITS), Bangalore, in partialfulfillment of the requirements for a Masters Degree in Mass Communication (AVC)

awarded by Makhanlal Chaturvedi Rashtriya Patrika Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal. I take

responsibility for any instances of plagiarism that may be detected in my work

Gurpreet Kaur Sidhu


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researcher would like to thank the following people for their support, patience, advice

and guidance that has been invaluable and has helped in the successful completion of theresearch project.

Digvijay Singh Deo, Sports correspondent, CNN-Ibn for being my guide through thedissertation.

K Sai Prasad, HoD of Marketing, and Ramesh Prabhu, Professor of Journalism, fortheir constant support, guidance and encouragement.

Ranita Hirji, Dean of Commits, for giving me this opportunity. All the journalists whose valuable inputs helped me complete my dissertation.


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The advent of cable television and technology has enhanced the reach and impact of the

broadcast media. It has also made the competition among the various news channels fiercer

which has resulted in TRP (television rating points) driven content. News channels have been

criticized for this; but media vigilantism has proven that content on news channels is not

completely the outcome of the rat race.

News channels are one of the most important catalysts in shaping public opinions, and

sentiments. Thus it has the responsibility of disseminating accurate information and

knowledge. Due to its vast intrusion in public life, it has the power of creating an enduring

impact on society and culture of a region. And news channels are using this power to bring

about a change and are playing an active role in cases where the hope for justice has died.

This phenomenon is called Trial by media. Not only has this trend become increasingly

popular, but has been instrumental in bring about justice in many cases like the Jessica Lall

case and Ruchika Girhotra case where justice would have been denied if not for media

intervention.

Trail by media has both positive and negative outcomes. In the cases of Priyadarshini Mattooand Ruchika Girhotra the medias active role built a strong public opinion against the accusedand the constant coverage played a catalyst in ensuring that the victims were given justice.

But like everything else, there are two sides to trial by media as well. The negative outcomes

are usually that sometimes news coverage can build wrong public opinion. This is so becausethe media itself jumps to conclusions like in the case of the Aarushi murder case.

Trial by media has gained immense importance and it has played an important role in helping

people in their fight for justice and has also bought out issues, which would have otherwise

gone unnoticed. But the largest criticism that the media gets in terms of trial by media is that

it hampers free trial and puts judges under immense pressure.

Trial by media earlier restricted itself to issues of murder and rape but now with the recent

coverage of the Commonwealth games, the media has taken up the issues of corruption as

well.


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IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

Trial by media is a term which has gained momentum in the recent past. The media has

played a proactive role in highlighting a lot of cases. So far medias fight has been to provide

justice to helpless victims who might not have got justice because the accused in these cases

were extremely powerful or belonged to powerful political families like in the Nitish Katara,Priyadarshini Mattoo or Ruchika Girhotra case.

But now the media has played an active role in unearthing the irregularities in purchase of

equipment and misappropriation of funds in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games.

The researcher would like to study the cause and effect trial by media by TV news channels

has had on CWG, whether it was done in public interest or done to in order to beat their

competitors.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this dissertation is to determine why the electronic media choose to conducta trial by media of the CWG and what the outcomes of this media initiative were. Also to

understand the effect the media coverage has had on public opinion.

OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

Chapter 1: This chapter is an introduction and gives the background of the study and its

objectives.

Chapter 2: This chapter gives all the secondary information collected regarding the effect oftrial by media.

Chapter 3: This chapter delves into the research methodology employed in the study. It

gives the details of the industry personnel interviewed.

Chapter 4: This chapter gives the analysis of the information collected.

Chapter 5: This chapter gives the researcher interpretation of the information collected.

Chapter 6: This concluding chapter sums up the results of the study and moves on to give

recommendations based on the results obtained.

Appendices: This chapter consists of the appendices for the dissertation. It contains all the

interviews conducted by the researcher.


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Case studyJessica Lall Case

Jessica Lall was shot dead on April 29, 1999 while she was working as a celebrity barmaid at

a party organized by a leading socialite Bina Ramani in south Delhi. Manu Sharma, the sonof Venod Sharma, a wealthy and powerful congress politician in Haryana, was accused as themurderer.

The party was organized at the Tamarind Court Caf in the Qutub area of South Delhi. At

around 2 am when the party was almost over Manu Sharma with his friends Amandeep

Singh, Alok Khanna, Amit Jhingan and Vikas Yadav allegedly entered the restaurant and

demanded liquor from Jessica.

Since the bar was being closed she told Sharma that no more drinks would be served. Afrer

some talks Sharma lost his temper and fired his gun once in the air and the second time at

Jessica. She died on the spot.

Sharma fled from the restaurant leaving his car behind which was later moved by his friends.

Venod Sharma was asked to step down as congress party chief in the state.

Manu Sharma surrendered on May 6 in Chandigarh subsequently Vikas Yadav, son of D.P.

Yadav another minister from Uttar Pradesh also surrendered.

The Jessica Lall case went up for trial in August 1999. Manu Sharma was charged with

murder and his friends charged for relative crimes such as destroying evidence and sheltering

criminal suspects. Four of the witnesses who had initially said they had seen the murder had

turned hostile.

Shyan Munshi, a model who was serving behind the bar with Jessica Lall in his initial

statement had said that Manu Sharma had fired the gun twice once into the air and once a

Jessica. This testimony was signed by Shyan Munshi but later during the trial he claimed that

he did not know hindi and was not aware of what he had signed.

After extensive hearings with nearly a hundred witnesses, the court passed its order on

February 21, 2006. Throughout his 179 page case verdict, Additional Sessions Judge, S.L.

Bhayana said that police sought to create and introduce false evidence against Sharma. The judgment repeatedly hints the prosecution may have attempted from the beginning to

fabricate the evidence and present dales witnesses, so as so render the case indefensible.

In conclusion he agreed with counsel for the accused that police had decided to frame theaccused. The judgment faulted the police for deciding on the accused first and then collecting

evidence against him, instead of letting the evidence lead them to the murderer. Since the

prosecution had failed to establish guilt beyond doubt all nine accused were acquitted.

After the judgement by the lower court, there was an immense protest from the people.

Hundreds of thousands of people emailed and texted their outrage on petitions forwarded by

media channels and newspapers to the President and others seeking remedies for the alleged

miscarriage of justice.

Public pressure builds up with the newspapers splashing headlines such as No one killed

Jessica and television channels running SMS pools. Models, fashion designers, friends,


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relatives and others have held candle light vigils at India gate in New Delhi to protest the

injustice.

On April 18, 2006, the division bench comprising Justice Manmohan Sareen and Justice J.M.

Malik release Manu Sharma on rupees one lakh bail. They also pulled up the Delhi police and

urged them to ensure minimum delays in the retrial process.

Surendra Sharma, the police inspector responsible for the investigation was transferred to a

bureaucratic post. The police have also launched an inquiry against the possibly ineptness of

their own earlier investigations.

On March, 2006 the Delhi high court admitted an appeal by the police against the Jessica Lall

murder acquittals, issuing bailable warrants against prime accused Manu Sharma and eight

others, but restraining them from leaving the country. This was not a retrial, but merely an

appeal based on evidence already submitted in the lower court.

Manu Sharma gave a statement to the police, which was taped, in which he admits shooting

Jessica Lall. The idea at that time was to shoot I challenge. It was embarrassing to hear thateven if I paid a thousand bucks I would not get a sip of drink.

The audio tape was obtained and aired by NDTV but it did not constitute legal testimony.

On September 9, 2006, a sting operation by the news magazine Tehelka was shown on starnews which revealed how the witnesses has been bribed and coerced into retracting their

initial testimony. Venod Sharma was named in the expose as paying millions of rupees to

some of the witnesses.

On December 15, 2006, the high court bench of Justice R. S. Sodhi and Justice P.K. Bhasin

held Manu Sharma guilty based on existing evidence. The judgment said that the lower court

had not considered the testimony of witnesses such as Deepak Bhojwani, with great respect

to the learned judge, we point out that this manner of testing the credibility of the witness is

hardly a rule of appreciation of evidence. Obviously, this reflects total lack of application ofmind.

In particular the key witness Shyan Munshi came in for serious criticism, and may be facing

criminal proceedings. The judgment says, of his repudiating his own FIR Munshi is nowclaiming that the said statement was recorded in Hindi while he had narrated the whole story

in English as he did not know Hindi at allwe do not find his explanation of Munshi to be

convincing.

Regarding Munshis testimony about the gun theory, the judgment says, in court he hastaken a somersault and came out with a version that there were two gentlemen at the barcounterwe have no manner of doubt that on this aspect he is telling a complete lie

All 32 witnesses who turned hostile have been asked to appear before the court on February

21 to explain why they should not be tried for perjury.

On December 20 Manu Sharma was awarded life imprisonment. The other accused, Vikas

Yadav and Amardeep Singh Gill, were awarded four years of imprisonment for destroying

evidence.

There was widespread celebration of Manus conviction on the media, where it was seen asevidence that the peoples voice could move the wheels of justice.


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Role played by the media

In this case the media played a very important role in bringing out the culprits before the law.

Tehelka and star plus conducted a sting operation and brought to light that all the witnesseswere bribed and thats how the witnesses have turned hostile. There was widespread media

coverage in this regard and the people also actively participated in this.

The extensive media coverage made people proud of the free media prevalent in the country.

Several media houses began a campaign to build public pressure like SMS Jessica to 3636,

NDTV petitioned the president with two lakh respondents. Almost 2,500 people gathered at

the Indian gate to voice their protest and to hold candlelight vigils. It worked the case

reopened and the accused Manu Sharma was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

There was also widespread criticism that his proactive role played by the media has done

injustice to Manu Sharma. Ram Jethmalani, the lawyer of Manu Sharma accused that media

is playing the judge in this case. He filed a contempt case against the media after a newspaper

published a report which claimed that he had questioned the integrity of Justice R.S. Sodhi,

who was hearing the Jessica case.

Jethmalani said, I will ask the judge to shut the courtroom because today verdicts are given

within the confines of a TV studio. He also said that the media has been resorting to amalicious campaign against Manu Sharma airing reports questioning the integrity of the

judges hearing the case.

Even Manu Sharma sentenced to life imprisonment in the Jessica Lall murder case said in the

court that he had been a victim of widespread media campaign launched against him. Ram

Jethmalani said that media has been portraying his client as guilty and the whole process was

trial by media.

The inspector in charge of the Jessica Lall case, Surrender Sharma, in an interview to the

Times of India, pointed fingers at DP Yadav for influencing the forensic officer to alter the

evidence of switching a bullet in the Jessica Lall case:

Sharma hinted that Roop Singh did this at the behest of DP Yadav, the father of one of theaccused Vikas Yadav, and an unnamed arms dealer.

However, D.P. Yadav told the paper that he had not met anyone from the lab or any

policemen involved n the investigation.


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Case Study

Ruchika Girhotra Case

Ruchika Girhotra was an emerging tennis star in 1990. It was in the same year that the 14-

year-old was called to the office of IPS Officer SPS Rathore, who was also the President ofHaryana Lawn Tennis Association and molested by him.

Ruchika went to meet Rathore in his office only because he had come to her house the

previous day with regard to her Tennis. Ruchika went to his office with her friend Aradhana

who was sent out of the room by Rathore in the pretext of some work. A few minutes later,

she saw Rathore pressing himself against Ruchika.

Both Ruchika and Aradhana decided to ignore it. But Rathore called Ruchika into his office

the next day as well. So left with no other option, Ruchika told her father. Mr. Girotra and

several of his neighbors went to Mr. Rathores house to confront him and 9 days of the

incident on august 21 they filed a complaint before the then Haryana DG, RR Singh.

After the FIR was registered, Rathore threatened Ruchikas father to withdraw it but he

refused to take the complaint back. He then started to threaten the family using various

techniques like sending policemen. Ruchika was reminded of the incident regularly as she

was abused in public places. Ruchika was also thrown out her school, Roman Catholic

school, on the behest of Rathore, though the official reason sighted was that she did not pay

her fees on time.

Ruchika started to live a life of confinement but the harassment continued even for the next

three years. The police filed false cases against her brother, Ashu. He was arrested on

suspicion of stealing cars and imprisoned. He was beaten and fed only tea and bread for two

months

They tied my hands behind my back and hung me upside down, he said. They took off my

trousers and beat my legs with leather belts and sticks, says Ashu

He was arrested again, and detained for weeks without explanation. On December 25, 1993,

the police brought Ashu to the Girhotras neighborhood and paraded him through the streets.

Ruchika held herself responsible for her brothers state and three days later on December 28

she committed suicide by consuming poison.

Rathore was promoted by a series of chief ministers, winning the top police post in the state

in 1999. But Ruchikas friend Aradhana and herparents kept fighting the battle. Rathore also

filed civil and criminal cases against the family. Mr. Parkash was demoted and ultimately

forced to retire early at a lower pension. But they did not give up and in 1999, the Haryana

High Court ruled in their favor.

In January 2000, Rathore was charged with molesting Ruchika Girotra. He faced a sentenceof up to two years in prison if convicted. He was placed on leave from the police force.

The trial stretched on for almost another decade. Mr. Rathores wife, Abha, a well-known

High Court lawyer, defended him. Mr. Girhotra said that the defense found endless ways to


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drag out the trial. There were more than 400 hearings and repeated continuances. Mrs.

Rathore cross-examined witnesses for months.

Finally, on Dec. 21, 2009, nearly two decades after the crime, Mr. Rathore was convicted of

molesting Ruchika. The judge gave him a reduced sentence of six months in prison after his

wife argued that the long trial and Mr. Rathores age, 67, entitled him to leniency. He wasalso fined 1,000 rupees.

Role played by the media

The Ruchika Girhotra case was on for several years, but the media played an active role in

highlighting the power of the powerful in bending the system and escaping unpunished for

their crimes.

Media coverage of the case also created a public outcry and a pressure for justice.

NDTV ran many campaigns for the Justice for Ruchika. They tried to get public opinion bycreating facebook page dedicated to justice for Ruchika and also allowed their viewers tohave a live chat with Ruchikas friend Aradhana (appendix)

Ruchikas case was given more coverage than any other topic. It was almost 8 times more

than any news on politics and almost 30 times more than any news on agriculture related

issues. This not only led to the case becoming a household topic, but also a means to takeaction.

The media led the campaign for changes in ways complaints are filed, the creation of special

courts for timely justice, even making molestation a non-bailable offence.

Media reports also showed how many other girls apart from Ruchika, including Rathores

daughter, were also behind on their tuition payments and had not been expelled.

Even Rathore said that he became a victim of media trial and because of which he was beaten

up in front of the court.


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CASE STUDY

Commonwealth Games, 2010

The Commonwealth Games are multi-disciplined games and have history dating back several

years. This year the games were held in New Delhi. India had seven whole years to preparefor the games, but despite this India was behind schedules for the preparations. The

arrangements for the event included constructing stadia, the games village, footbridges, roads

and parts of the metro rail.

The Commonwealth Games were criticized by several prominent politicians and social

activists because the government was going to spend billions of dollars on the sporting event

despite large sections of Indian living below the poverty line.

The CWG received widespread coverage before the event, unfortunately a majority of it

proved to be negative. The media through their investigations revealed that various

authorities in charge of different aspects of the organization of the games were involved incorruption. TIMES NOW was responsible for the first media expose. The expose was about

misappropriation of funds with regard to the Queens Baton relay. The media investigationsshowed that Sanjay Mohindroo, T.S Darbari, and Suresh Kalmadi were responsible for

paying large amounts of money to the company. The documents also showed that there wasno written contract between the CWG and the UK-based AM Films, no tendering procedure

was followed, and no paperwork regarding the contract was done.

After the first expose, all news channels conducted investigations and brought to light the

widespread corruption in the games. Some of the investigations revealed that the ES Group

who were a part of a consortium for supplying overlays were charging nearly six times when

compared to other suppliers. This was first reported to in the international newspaper TheObserver. The newspaper reported: It supplied 176 rubbish bins at 104 each, compared

with the 16 charged by another group. And the 20 sinks it supplied each cost 501, morethan double those provided by a rival.

The huge price differences appear to highlight the failure of the games organizers to keep a

check on the budget, which has ballooned from 260 million to 1.4 billion, the newspaper

said.

Other reports by news channels showed how treadmills and other fitness equipment werepurchased at an inflated cost. Also the media unearth how medical equipment was bought

when there was no medical centre.


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Apart from money laundering, the Common Wealth games got negative publicity also

because the quality of the materials used in the infrastructure were said to be sub-standard. A

footbridge and a stadium ceiling collapsed confirm these reports. CNN IBN also procured

reports of the Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC) which points to corruption at every level

in the organization of the games. The CVC report said that almost all organizations executinginfrastructure works for Commonwealth Games have disregarded rules in tenders and

increased their prices. The reports further said there is no guarantee of quality of the work

done because test records have been fabricated to show compliance. Concrete used in

infrastructure work has failed to meet the requirement of strength.

"We have found corruption in many Games-related construction projects. After thorough

examination of the assessment made by our officials, we will be writing to the concerned

civic agencies to probe them," a senior CVC official said.

The hygiene levels in and around the venues and specifically in the games village were also

intolerable. A Dengue alert was also given. BBC first revealed the images of the dirty

bathrooms. After which every news channels covered the story.

The Times group investigations showed that key investors in top CWG supplier had fictitious

village addresses

Several authorities were responsible for these discrepancies, misappropriation of funds and

other forms of corruption. But at the centre of the medias attention was Suresh Kalmadi, the

Chairman of the organizing committee. Suresh Kalmadi was held responsible for all that was

happening in the CWG. The media ran an aggressive campaign against him and asked for his

resignation. But a determined Kalmadi refused to step down till the games were over.

The Indian media was criticized for having run a trial by media against the games. The media

was blamed for sponsors backing out and for the lack of investments.

OVERLAYS CWG COST PER PIECE

Treadmill Rs 9.75 lakh

Cross trainers Rs 8.8 lakh

Refrigerator Rs 42,202Chairs Rs 8,378

Umbrellas Rs 6,308

Trolley beds Rs 2.75 lakh

Ultrasound machines Rs 3.5 lakh

Lawn tracks Rs 1.36 crore


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The charts show the kind of stories news channels covered in the runup to the games. From

the charts it clear that most channels aired a majority of negative stories.

PRIME TIME (7-11 pm) COVERAGE of CWG (SEPTEMBER 1 to 30, 2010)

Bulletin stories

Special programmes

Source- CMS Media Lab


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DON'T TAINT COUNTRY'S IMAGE FURTHER

Suggesting that power struggles in India and biased reporting by the local media could be

part of an ulterior move to torpedo the New Delhi Games, the chief executive of the

Australian Commonwealth Games Association has said that continuing criticism is part of aconcerted attempt to stop or even relocate the event.

Perry Crosswhite told an Australian news agency: "You are not going to take athletes if it is

not safe or secure ... but you shouldn't just push for the Games to be cancelled. A lot of

people out there, I think, are trying to do that... I am not sure what it is - whether we don't

believe it will be as good as in the past, so let's continue for them to be found out for what's

wrong. I don't think that's right. I don't think it's fair to the Indians. I don't think it's fair to the

Commonwealth Games or to the athletes."

With Games OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi persisting in his denial mode in the face of the

mounting tsunami of allegations of wrongdoing, promising that the New Delhi Games will bethe best ever, Crosswhite said: "Their media is just unbelievable. They are crucifying eachother. There is nothing we can do about that."

The Australian official recognised that much of the infrastructure remained unfinished just 47

days before the Games' scheduled opening but pointed out that many facilities on the insidewere, in fact, complete.

NEGATIVE PUBLICITY OF CWG UNFAIR, SAY FOREIGN JOURNALISTS

DELHI: "Exaggerated" and "unfair"... That is how many foreign journalists covering the

Commonwealth Games (CWG) here describe the bad press the event has been receivingabroad, with some even saying it reflects a "pre-set negative mindset".

John MacKinnon, a sports columnist from Canada who has been here for over two weeks,

said: "I think the negative press the event organisers and India has been receiving are

exaggerated.

"Some things like empty stands in some events are a matter of concern, especially for the

athletes who need motivation. But on the whole the reports are unfair."

MacKinnon said athletes were quite satisfied with the event that began on Oct 3 and will go

on till Oct 14. "If you ask me, then I think the athletes are on the whole quite happy with thearrangements.

"I have been interacting with the Canadian athletes and they are very happy with the facilities

in the Games Village, the food, everything. They are abiding by protocol and see no reason to

complain," MacKinnon told IANS.

Voicing similar feelings, Mereseini Marau of the Pacific Islands News Association said

athletes were quite happy with the arrangements.

"I have been interacting with a lot of athletes from Papua New Guinea, Tonga and others and

By: Khalid A-H Ansari Date: 2010-08-18 Mid-day


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they are satisfied with the arrangements. Every big sporting event has its share of glitches and

so does India. I think the opening ceremony put an end to a lot of negative reporting that

India was getting," Marau told IANS.

However, bad press continues to dog the Games abroad.

The Telegraph for instance has been running a series, "What's going wrong in Delhi today",pointing out glitches such as empty stands, vomiting swimmers and blocked lavatories in

Delhi.

According to MacKinnon, much of the negative reporting stems from a pre-set mindset on

the part of the media.

"There was a lot of negative reporting about the Games before the actual event, so maybe

people have come here with a pre-set negative mindset. And you have to keep in mind that

this is the first time India is organising such a big event, unlike China, where, before the

Olympics, other events were held and they could learn from the mistakes," he said.

Marau went on to say the Indian media was partly responsible for the negative publicity

outside.

"We would never run down our country the way the Indian media does. It is bold actually, to

say everything so openly and point out the shortcomings but a series of negative reporting bythe home media puts a bad image outside," she said.

A freelance journalist from New Zealand, however, said not all of the negative reportage was

without reason.

"I agree that some reports have been very harsh, but there have been quite a few glitches.There is a problem with tickets, a scoreboard falls off somewhere, then there were reports of

harassment in the village...," he trailed off.

"But things seem to be on track now. The athletes are also satisfied with the arrangements,"

he added.

Moazzam Hossain Choudhury of the Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha said: "If I look at the

arrangements from the point of view of a country in this part of the subcontinent, it's brilliant.

In fact we are very proud of it.

"But if you compare it to other sports events which are held internationally, then maybe India

could have done better. "I won't talk about others, but if I compare these Games with otherslike the Doha championship and the Beijing Olympics, movement around the city has not

been hassle free."But overall, I think the arrangements are good," he added.


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The research is done through the interview method. The researcher has collected all her

primary data through her interactions with journalists from leading English news channels.

A total of eight questions were prepared and interviews were conducted through e-mail and

telephone.

The interviews are in-depth and detailed in nature and the conclusion will be derived after

analysing the opinion of the media professionals who were interviewed.

The researcher has interviewed:

Vinay Tiwari, Managing editor, CNN-IBN

Digvijay Singh Deo, Sports correspondent, CNN-IBN

Vimal Mohan, Special Correspondent, NDTV

Ranit Mukherji, DD News

Mohsin Mughal, Correspondent, Headlines Today

Rahul Rao, Anchor/Correspondent, NDTV

Correspondent, Times Now

Senior journalist, Times Now


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1. What is your opinion of trial by media?The term trial means being judgemental about people and issues and it should be supported

by proof. Most professionals interviewed said trial by media was both a good and a bad

phenomenon. It is good because if not for the media many issues might have gone unnoticed.

They believe media is the fourth pillar of democracy and being the watchdog, it is their dutyto ensure that justice is done in accordance with rule of law.

But trial by media has received a negative connotation because the media speculates and goes

overboard with its coverage. The reason for this is that the media is at a nascent stage and is

still in the process of evolving through a process of trial and error. The media is also caught

in the breaking news syndrome apart from the journalists being unaware or ignorant of all the

aspects of the story. Therefore, the media in some cases, like the Aarushi murder case and

Nithari killings, has been guilty of being overtly brazen and insensitive.

On the whole, trial by media is about raisingquestions, enquiring and fixing responsibilities

and it has both positive and negative outcomes.

2. After the first media expose of the CWG controversy, other channels launched an anti-establishment attack. So what prompted news channels to go all out against the

organizing committee?

Most professionals are of the opinion that news channels covered the CWG scams

extensively only to expose the corrupt officials and to unearth the corruption that was

prevalent in the organizing of the games. The risk of denigrating the national pride also led to

an all-out campaign by the media. A few journalists also say that the coverage of CWG was

not done with the intention to target any organization, establishment or individual. It wascovered only to expose things that should not have happened.

Fierce competition and the TRP race is another reason why the media launched such a

campaign. High TRPs means more business which is essential for the revenue of a news

channel. Also no channel or journalist wanted to lag behind the competitors. This holds true

for any big stories for example the Bihar elections or the Kashmir issue and CWG was a big

competition

to expose the truth

to create sensation


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platform as the games were happening for the first time in India and it had already gathered

the interest of the people.

A large percentage of the journalists also believe that the media is always on the lookout for

negative and sensational stories. Anti-establishment stories also sell better than others which

is why stories on CWG earned immensely more TRPs or TVRs than the games themselves.*

3. The times Group who were the first to expose the AM films controversy, is said to havevested interests. So is the decision on what stories to pursue a management or an

editorial one?

All journalists refused to comment on whether the Times group had any vested interest in

carrying an extensive media campaign against the CWG. But a few of them said that the

expose done by Times now was an example of true investigative journalism and it did not

matter why they started covering the negative stories about CWG because their exposes and

the exposes done by other channels have translated to action being taken by authorities.

All journalists believe that the decision on which story to pursue or not to pursue should be

an editorial one. Professionals from CNN-IBN and NDTV categorically said that their

decisions are governed by the editorial. They do not let their personal relations or rapports

with people affect the kind of coverage they do of a particular issue. But they do feel that

sometimes when they see other channels covering a story they feel that competition steps into

the picture and they have to cover that particular story.

However, journalists also believe that the management has come to play a strong role in what

stories to air or not. They say that in the present situation the management has an upper hand

and the editors are no longer as important as they used to be. This also applies to most mediahouses in India.

Some journalists also believe that the management and editorial team have to work in

tandem.

editorial

management


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because a government enquiry was set-up by the government, another journalist says that

there were no direct effects of trial by media. The resignation of officials could be an indirect

one probably because of the fear of what might be exposed next and also because they were

under the scanner.

Some journalists believe it was not the effect of trial by media but of effective coverage.While some categorically said that it was the effect of trial by media and stated that some

authorities have also acknowledged this.

7. Do you think Suresh Kalmadi was targeted unfairly at any time by the media? If yes,give instances.

An equal number of journalists believe that Kalmadi was unfairly and fairly targeted. The

professionals who believe he was unfairly targeted say that everything that went wrong

whether it was the foot bridge collapse, the ceiling collapse or the unhygienic conditions of

the games village was blamed on Kalmadi despite somebody else being responsible for it.

They feel this happened because Kalmadi was the face of the organization of the games andwhen someone is in the public eye, he cannot expect to have an ideal situation.

Some also believe that Kalmadi was unfairly targeted only because the OC lacked effectivemedia management skills and also failed to provide media positive stories.

Contrary to this believe, some journalists believe that at no point was Kalmadi unfairlytargeted. They believe that since he held a position of responsibility, he must account for any

alleged irregularity.

A small percentage of the interviewed journalists believe that this is a premature question andcan be answered only after the enquiry reports are out.

8. Did news channels deliberately hype the CWG controversy in order to bring aboutaction?

NO

YES

To early to say


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A large percentage of the journalists believe that the media did not hype the coverage. They

just reported what was happening. On the contrary, few journalists believe that private news

channels survive on drama, thus categorizing hyped news coverage as a natural adaptation.

They believe this has to an extent helped increase transparency in public life as well as made

people watch news with the same level of enthusiasm with which they watch Bollywood

movies.


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The media has covered the Commonwealth games extensively and have to a great extent been

fair and responsible with the reporting. The researcher feels the media was right in

uncovering all the corruption related scams like the Queens Baton controversy in which

reports showed that the organizing committee was transferring Rs 17 lakh into the account of

AM films every month apart from the Rs 1.68 crore that was given to them for the servicesthey provided. The media reports highlighted that the OC made payments to AM films for

video purchase equipment, but the company had provided services of car hire, make-shift

toilets, barriers and electricity. The media allegations forced Suresh Kalmadi to order an

investigation. Kalmadi had to set up a three-member enquiry committee.

The media played a very important role in exposing how officials and politicians were

benefitting from the award of contracts. If it wasnt for media activism, Anil Khanna, the

treasure of the games organizing committee would not have resigned despite authorities being

aware of the fact that his son was awarded contracts for the tennis turfs. Unfortunately, after

the initial action, the issue was put on the back burner.

The media has played the role of being a watchdog of society and has ensured that the

purpose of highlighting the atrocities against the common man is not kept in the dark.

The role of the media was to highlight the discrepancies that were prevalent in the CWG

organization. It was media pressure that forced authorities to set up enquiry commissions.

Also the extensive media coverage made sure that the issue was escalated to the PM. If itwasnt for the media, the games venues would not be ready on time and the games could have

been postponed.

The media in some instances went overboard with the coverage. Statistics from CMS medialab shows that most channels dedicated all their time to covering negative stories. With the so

many negative stories, the media left an impression that everything was not in place and India

was not ready to host the games, but that wasnt the case. Also in some cases the media

misreported the facts. The researcher feels that this could have been due to intense pressure to

cover every story related to the games and also because TV news as a medium is fast and

stories have less shelf life, so the journalists do not do in-depth investigation for every story.

The media directed all its attention toward Suresh Kalmadi. On several accounts he has been

blamed for the fault of another. For example, the clean-up of the games village was under the

administration of Jaipal Reddy, the construction of the bridge was the responsibility of the

Delhi government.

Suresh Kalmadi might be a victim of excessive trial by media, which though not fair towards

him helped make the system more transparent and liable

The researcher feels that the media is being blamed for tarnishing Indias image as well as forbeing responsible in sending out the wrong message before the games only because large

amounts of money was involved and all officials are aware of the power of the media and

were/are scared of the shady deals coming out in public.


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Follow up

There have been ample number of follow-ups and despite several other scams coming to light

like the Adarsh colony housing scam, the media constantly plays stories and holds

discussions related to the CWG controversy. Some news channels and newspapers have gone

to the extent of listing down all the scams that the officials were involved in so as to not letthe issue go on the back burner.

Legal

As an after math of the media coverage, the government has set-up several committees like

the Shunglu committee, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Central Vigilance

Commission (CVC), income tax department, Enforcement Directorate (ED), CBI, to probe

the corruption charges. Though these bodies are not independent of the congress led

government; media pressure might make them act fast. However the judicial procedures will

take its own course, thus it is likely that the issue might die down.

In conclusion, the researcher feels that even though the media exposes have brought several

irregularities with the CWG organization to light, the media is restricted in terms of power. It

cannot assume the position of the judiciary and pronounce people guilty or non-guilty.

Therefore, in case no FIRs are filed and if no legal action is taken against the corrupt, the

only thing the media will be able to do is to raise a voice and build public pressure. The

media pronouncing authorities guilty will not result in anything.


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Through the research, the researcher comes to a conclusion that trial by media is an effective

tool for journalists to highlight corruption and other such acts. However, as an aware and

responsible citizen representing as well as impacting people, journalists should exercise more

caution while reporting facts.

Media coverage has definitely helped to generate public awareness of at least the mostobvious of the multiple problems and scams that plague India. Such coverage has also led to

public recognition of the kind of deals that the civil servants indulge in.

The researcher does understand that most news channels are public limited companies

committed to deliver a certain level of earnings. This can be achieved only through high

TRPs apart from airing sponsored programmes etc. Thus the media has to run campaigns that

not only unearth corruption but also generate enough TRP which in turn generates revenue.

From the various interviews conducted by the researcher she draws conclusion that the media

does not pronounce people guilty without making a serious attempt to study the charges and

investigate them.

A precise answer cannot be attained about the cause and effects of trial by media. Whethersuch campaigns are conducted for TRPs, to uncover truth or for a combination of these

depends on an individual organization. Whatever be the reason, in the process the media actsas a vehicle to get justice.


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INTERVIEWS

Digvijay Singh Deo

Associate editor, sports, CNN-IBN

1. What is your opinion of trial by media with reference to the CWG controversy?Trial by media can be good or bad. As a journalist my duty is to report a story, I cant be

judgmental. If I say that the organizing committee is corrupt I need to have proof that they are

so. But what went wrong was all journalists didnt know how to such a multidiscipline game

works. It was not just the organizing committee that was responsible for everything. DDA

was also at fault, so you cant blame only the OC.

We must realize that the Indian media is still evolving and that is why there was so much

speculation. But we are lucky that we are a free press because if we were in any other country

we would have been sued for libel.

We just went overboard with our reports and lots of channels were speculating about various

things. For example, they termed the games village as unfit for stay. But I said it was nice,

because I have attended other common wealth games. In the Manchester games 12 athletes

were sharing one toilet, in Melbourne 6 were sharing one toilet. But in India only 2 athletes

were sharing one toilet. But all these reports trickled down after sometime.



We are always on the lookout for negative and sensational news stories. But in the CWG

case, we did not realize that whatever we published was going out as the organizing

committee screwed up. It was going out as India screwed up. If the stadium is not built, its

not the OCs fault. It was the fault of the DDA and the Sheila Dikshit government. Only in

august end was the OC handed over the village etc. But no one got into the specifics of the

CWG and all this hurt Indias image.

3. So did TRPs not play a role at all?Frankly speaking none of the English news channels report good TRPs and you dont

register any TRPs for news bulletins, its registered only for special shows.

4. Is the decision on what stories to pursue a management or an editorial one?When a sustained campaign is going on you have to also stay in the picture. See if get up in

the morning and see newspapers and news channels covering something, I ask myself so why

am I not doing that story. Also when competition gets nasty you have to cover to report.


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Also the OC is to blame for us doing such stories. There was a lot of sham going on and their

recruitment procedures etc were corrupt. But we did do a lot of positive coverage between

January and July.

5. It is said that the times Group who were the first to expose the AM films controversy,had vested interests in conducting such a massive campaign against the CWG. What is

your opinion?

The Times Now expose is an example of true journalism. The story was a good piece of

investigation and thats how the stories should be. But it would be unfair on my part to say

that they had vested interests to do so.

For my story also it took me a month to do all the investigation and get the facts right. I got a

lot of calls from Suresh Kalmadi asking me to not put it up on air. But that didnt stop me

from doing so.

6. News channels showed that tissue rolls were purchased at exorbitant prices, but SureshKalmadi justified the cost. So do you think the media jumps to conclusions without an

in-depth investigation?

At that time the media was going overboard with the reporting. For example, the cost of the

tissue rolls for 100 pieces was Rs 4000, but the media said it was for per tissue roll. Reports

said we wasted 40 crores over the balloon, but once the ceremony happened the balloon

became the star of the show and no newspaper or channel said anything was bad about it.

So yes the media did jump into conclusions without doing an in-depth investigation. But to be

fair to the media, the OC was not being transparent. They were Vichy-washy. The hid a lot of

the facts and the media expose made them transparent.

7. Do you think the CWG expose of irregularities of funds with fitness equipmentpurchase and the Queens baton relay, created a public furor and also forced the

authorities to take action?

I dont think so. And in the case of the queens Baton Relay, the kind of money that was

involved was only about 30 lakhs. It wasnt a huge deal; it wasnt large scale corruption likewhat goes on in the NREGA. Everybody got a different budget. The OCs budget was

16000crores, but do you everything was clubbed and blamed on the OC.

8. Several members of the CWG organizing committee like Sanjay Mohindroo andT.S.Darbari were asked to step down after the media expose. Do you think this was the

effect of trial by media?

No it wasnt the effect of trial by media. Somebody had to expose this and they did resign

because the government set-up an enquiry against them. And if your name comes up in any

corruption, to prove yourself innocent you will resign right?


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Everything was blamed on the Organizing committee. The foot bridge collapse, the ceiling

collapsing and even the condition of the games village which was under Jaipal Reddy was

blamed on Kalmadi. It was not his fault, but when it comes to the Queens Baton relay it was

his fault.


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Vimal Mohan

Special correspondent, NDTV

1. What is your opinion of trial by media?Trail by media is not necessarily a good thing. But yes the media has a role to play. The

media has to bring out the problems in the system. They are the fourth state, if the media

doesnt do it then who will? Suppose the media only praised the commonwealth games. Then

what would happen?

The games village was not clean and nobody inquired about the Pune based company

Kalaptaroo, which was given the task of cleaning and waste management in the village.

Nobody questioned why that company failed to perform their job. Now everybody is pointing

fingers either towards the OC or towards the Delhi government or towards lieutenant

governor, DDA etc. But nobody is trying to point out to that particular company; somebodymight have some vested interest in that. Nobody is pointing to the exact problem.

The media has a role to play and they are doing it. If you are using public money it becomes

their job to clarify. Like Kalamdi went to every news channel and said that we will repay the

1600 crores that they had loaned because they were loans and not taken from the government.

In seven years they were not able to raise that kind of money. (1600 + 800 crores for

overlays) And then he said we are not getting enough sponsorship because the medias

coverage of CWG was negative. The media started covering it only very recently. If you fail

to perform then somebody has to point it out. Now every agency is checking. Do you think it

is populist? Yes the government and the system sometimes go by the populist measures, butat the same time its not only about that. There is corruption and they are supposed to be

checked by somebody. The media is doing its job, but they sometimes cross their limit

because not all people in the media are aware of everything, the breaking news syndrome is

very prevalent and we are still at a nascent stage. We behave very differently from BBC. At

times we cross the limits, but it does not go overboard every time.


organizing committee? Was it competition or because they wanted to expose the

irregularities?

Breaking news syndrome, the TRP fight, and also corruption led to this. That is why

Mahindroo and T.S Darbari were removed from the OC. There was a lot of corruption. For

instance, Mr Kalmadi showed a letter and said that AM films was recommended by the

foreign ministry. But later it was proven that this was not true as the foreign ministry

categorically said that it was not the foreign ministry reference through which they went to

AM films.

The media made mistakes also, but Common wealth was a big platform. And if you get big

news and one channel breaks it, the other channel has to do it. And this holds good for all

kinds of stories. The same wil happen if there is a story on Kashmir or about the Bihar


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running a story that Harish Sharmas house was raided. Harish Sharma called Arnab and said

that this is not true as there has been no raid in my house. Arnab apologized. I told Harish

that he could track the news and sue the channel for misreporting even if it was NDTV or

another channel. But he said who will take action. Unfortunately this is Indian mentality.

After 5 hours the same news was aired again.

If you try to run a news channel with a prejudiced mind, it will produce negative things also

but it can sometimes have positive outcomes also.



Yes this was the effect of trial by media. These are positive outcomes of it. Lalit N Bhanot,

the secretary general of the OC accepted it that what the media did was good. It is good for

the system and good for the public because after all its about public money. So public shouldnot be defeated and their purpose should not be defeated.


Sometimes yes. But if you are in the public eye and if you are being targeted you cannot

expect to have an ideal situation. The problem lies with them because they did not manage

the media well. If you dont provide the mediawith positive news you will be targeted with

negative news because there are a large number of media people who are not educated and

aware of their specific subjects and they try to create stories out of non-stories. So theremight be a case where he was targeted where it was not justified. But he was not targeted

only by the media even Mani Shankar Iyer, who according to me was equally responsible,

M.S. Gill, who was also equally responsible for the mess, and to an extent Sheila Dikshit as it

was their collective responsibility, but because they were not able to handle it. The media was

also not handled properly so he had to suffer. He has been advised by wrong people. They

were trying to put a gag on media. They were trying to control media, not trying to handle or

manage it.

8. What is the overall effect of trial by media in the case of the CWG controversy?One good thing that happened was that because of negative stories around, it became a

talking point in every household. According to me, all medal winners came to the studio. So

its a rare thing in Indian media. Some positives were the athletes got prominence.

T.S Darbari, Mohindroo and many other cases like Priya Singh Paul, Tarlochan Singh,

Rajkumar Sacheti, have been exposed by the media. And now that the media has started

probing and providing information to various agencies more names will be exposed.

It not necessary that all the committees were set up because of the media. The media played

its role and contributed to it. And to an extent its because the media made such a hue and cryabout the CWG.


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Ranit Mukherji

Senior executive producer, DD news

1. What is your opinion of 'trial by media'?I think 'trial by media' is a very fashionable term. If anything, it definitely doesn't come withthe consequences that result from judicial trials. Consequently, the quantum of respect earned

by a media person during any such 'trial' doesn't even remotely compare with what a judge

perhaps commands. Take the example of Ravi Shankar Prasad, the BJP heavyweight, who,

clearly irked with Times Now's editorial position on the Ayodhya verdict, had lashed out at

the anchor with: 'I am not going to let Mr X (the anchor) tell me what to do...'. Imagine a

respondent in a court of law reacting in a similar way to a judge's query. He would get thrown

behind bars for Contempt of Court. There is no such thing as 'Contempt of Media'. Media in

India is, more often than not, at the receiving end of contempt, sometimes for faults that are

its own. Because, if 'trial' means 'being judgmental' about issues and people, a huge section ofour homeland media has definitely been guilty of being overtly brazen, brusque and

therefore, insensitive with issues. That goldrush for the 'Breaking News' has cost ourfraternity more credibility than we could perhaps afford to lose.


organising committee?

Simple. Anti-institution stories always sell better than promotional coverage. Which is why

stories on CWG earned immensely more TRPs or TVRs than the games themselves. The

same goes for the last IPL. What cooked inside Lalit Modi's kitchen was definitely much

hotter than the game of cricket itself. So if you are talking about private news channels whywould they depart from the thumbrule of more TRPs and therefore more business?

3. The Times Group, which was the first to expose the AM films controversy, is said tohave vested interests. So is the decision on what stories to pursue a management or an

editorial one?

The TOI/ Times Now stories indicate AM Films was a dummy company whose bid was

accepted. Its director and staff members were recruited barely 48 hours before order was

issued for their payment. Has this claim been reasonably disproved? If not, it doesn't matter

who has vested interest and who doesn't. The media has every right to go to town with every

issue that deserves such a quantum of coverage. Having said this, the vortex of editorialdecisions in the Times Group has long ago shifted from the editorial to the management team.

Media watchers, many of whom were once insiders of the group, contend the presentmanagement has ushered in an era when editors are no longer important. This has now come

to apply to most media houses in India.

4. News channels showed that tissue rolls were purchased at exorbitant costs, but SureshKalmadi justified the costs. So do you think the media jumps to conclusions with an in-

depth investigation?

When you talk about channels blaming Kalmadi and Kalmadi justifying his action, you

reinforce the concept of 'trial by media', which I don't think counts for much. The governmenthas given the sleuthing agencies three months to submit their reports. Let's see what comes


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out at the end of all that. As for jumping to conclusions, I agree it is a bad practice, but

something which is not altogether avoidable in a 24x7 news channel which scores with even

a 5 minutes headstart for a breaking news over its closest rival in the market. Research and

investigation are terms more applicable now to stories with longer shelf life, not to half

hourly newsfall. But yes, in their desperation to notch up ratings, TV channels often go

overboard in a way that costs them their credibility.

5. Do you think the CWG expose of irregularities of funds with fitness equipmentpurchase and Queen's Baton relay created a public furor and also forced the authorities

to take action?

The pressure definitely builds up when the media goes the whole hog with an issue. But there

is no denying that the government has acted fast in this case. It could, for instance, dilute the

issue by creating a six months deadline for CVC to submit its report. Three months is really a

small time by Indian standards and the Prime Minister himself is taking regular updates.

6. Several members of the CWG organising committee like Sanjay Mohindroo and T.S.Darbari were asked to step down after the media expose. Do you think this was the


I have already said what I think about 'trial by media', which I suspect, is also a media-

invented term. So I don't see any direct effect, but may be there were some indirect ones. Plus

the premonition of what else might get exposed. Heads had started rolling prior to the gamespossibly to keep the deck cleared before the foreign media poured in. But yes, certain actions

gain promptness when you are under the scanner. Like they say, justice must also be seen tobe done.


I think this is a premature question. Whether the target-setting was fair or unfair may only be

known after the inquiry reports are out. Any comment on the same before that is a shot in the

dark.


Private news television survives on drama. Earthquake, fire, voodoo, witchcraft, politics,whatever it takes to get to that high decibel histrionics. And since it's survival we are talking

about, there is nothing deliberate, but a natural adaptation to the drama and its preconditions.

There are positives and negatives to this attitude. Creating perhaps as an offshoot a higherdegree of transparency in public life, the high decibel media has eventually succeeded in

making people watch news with the same level of enthusiasm and regard they reserve forBollywood dhamaka.


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Senior journalist from Times Now

1. What is your opinion of trial by media?Media has a huge role to play as a watchdog in a society. Unfortunately when media assumes

the position of judiciary, the result is catastrophic. Pronouncing someone guilty or not guiltysitting in news studios or in newspaper columns is unwarranted.



The first expose on the Organising Commitee by Times Now was like opening a can of

worms. There was enough and more damaging evidence against the CWG OC on various

accounts and that's what other news channels hoped to get their hands on.


editorial one?

Management and editorial team has to work in tandem. Even if the expose was done with a

vested interest, Times Group couldn't have cooked up a scam out of thin air. The facts of the

AM film scam were undeniable.


in-depth investigation

I wouldn't go into specifics of the charges leveled by the media but as I understand it's their

job to point out where the taxpayers money is being used. Unfortunately the pressure of 24

x 7 news environment is such that in-depth investigation takes a back seat.

5. Do you think the CWG expose of irregularities of funds with fitness equipmentpurchase and the Queens baton relay, created a public furor and also forced theauthorities to take action

Yes it did and rightfully so as the public realised how their hard earned money was being

squandered in the name of hosting good Games.



Yes it was after certain undeniable instances of misappropriation of funds were openly


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exposed by the media that the OC officals were sacked.


Yes, Mr Kalmadi's OC wasn't responsible for meeting construction deadlines for the

stadiums, yet he was slammed for that.


CWG scam got the TRPs and that's what mattered. News is far from being action oriented in

today's time.

9. What in your opinion is the overall effect of trial by media in the case of the CWGcontroversy?

Media cried out loud to expose the rot that existed in the name of national pride for the CWG.

Unfortunately, what should have been india's coming out party (eg like China's olympics)

suffered a huge blow because of the negative media coverage.


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Senior journalist from Times Now

1. What is your opinion of trial by media?I dont think there was trial by media as far as the stories we carried in our channel as every

single story was backed by documents and proofs.



After we did stories one after the other backed by documents and proofs and after wecomplimented our story by doing good follow ups, its only natural that others also picked i t

up. Imagine this; I did a story where in the CVC the Central Vigilance Commission had

asked the OC to furnish samples of all items hired by the OC. And the OC in turn asked the

CVC 40 crore rupees for cooperation with the investigation. Imagine situations such as these,

how can you blame the media for this and not the OC.


editorial one?

Whenever a journalist or a channel does commendable work there are always vested groups

who would want to sully the image of the person and the organization. As far as I know, the

AM films story was a purely an editorial one.

4. News channels showed that tissue rolls were purchased at exorbitant prices, but SureshKalmadi justified the cost. So do you think the media jumps to conclusions without anin-depth investigation?

I cannot comment on this one as I have not done this story, but yes, as far as treadmills and

other items are concerned we have proof to show that the prices were exorbitant.

In the present day and age, when there is so much of time constraint, and when there is

pressure to give minute-to-minute inputs, some journalists resort to do quick reporting

without in-depth investigation. But it is wrong to brand all journalists like that and there is

still a good breed among us who do stories based on facts.

5. Do you think the CWG expose of irregularities of funds with fitness equipmentpurchase and the Queens baton relay, created a public furor and also forced the


Yes definitely. A channel cannot stop airing stories on corruption thinking that it may create

public furor. In this case, it has forced the authorities to act.




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You cant call it trial by media. After the amount of corruption these people were involved in,

the least they could have done is to step down. But the big fish in the whole game, Suresh

Kalmadi is still scot free. And as journalists on ground, we feel bad about the situation, coz

we exactly know what these people were up to.

7. Do you think Suresh Kalmadi was targeted unfairly at any time by the media? If yes,give instances.I dont think so. Every story we did was backed by documents, but yes, I agree that we have

been a little aggressive, but thats how our channel has been reporting on all stories.


When you ask a question, you expect an answer. Similarly when a journalist reports a story

on corruption she expects action too.

9. What in your opinion is the overall effect of trial by media in the case of the CWGcontroversy?

Because of the stories that channels like ours ran, today multiple agencies like the CBI, CVC,ED, IT dept, CAG, the Shunglu Commission are all enquiring the matter. Its only because of

the media scrutiny.


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Mohsin Mughal

Correspondent, Headlines Today

1. What is your opinion of trial by media?I believe, it is raising questions/enquiring /fixing responsibilities by the media. Trying to find

answers even before the setup authorities go for it.



It was not an antiestablishment attack. it was not anti any one. Just that the media was

opening up things that shouldnt have happened. But yes there might have been an overdrive

by the media still it was not done with any intention to target anyorganization/establishment/individual.


editorial one?

I cannot comment about TIMES GROUP since I dont know about this organization.



No. There were proper investigations being done, if anyone were so sure that nothing waswrong, one could have sued those who reported it.

5. Do you think the CWG expose of irregularities of funds with fitness equipmentpurchase and the Queens baton relay created a public furo r and also forced the


Cant say about the public furore, but yes news reports ensured that authorities take action.



It was a result of an effective reportage. There was no media trial.


No he wasnt.


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No. It just uncovered what was happening.


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Senior journalist from NDTV

1. What is your opinion of trial by media?In principle, media cannot hold judicial trial. That is outside their scope and competence.

However, being the watchdog and fourth pillar of democracy, it is their duty to ensure that justice is done in accordance with rule of law and principles of our democratic set up.

Sometimes, the brazenness of injustice is so glaring that even extra-activism by media is

justified by public perception (for example in Ruchika case). However, the converse may also

happen (Nithari case). Therefore, self-regulation and commitment to dispassionate journalism

is the way forward.



In my opinion, it was perceived genuineness of the corruption charges and a sense of nationalpride at risk of denigration that led to an all-out dig up campaign by all sections of media. Of

course, fierce competitive environment in media was another factor. No one wanted to lag

behind.


editorial one?

Ideally, it should be editorial one based on facts and not vested interests. I have no

information of their vested interests. Therefore, no comments.



The role of the media was to highlight the anomaly and not to pronounce judgment. Mediaalso gave coverage to rebuts of Kalmadi. Both sides of the stories were shown. It was for the

public perception and judicial process to judge.

5. Do you think the CWG expose of irregularities of funds with fitness equipmentpurchase and the Queens baton relay, created a public furor and also forced theauthorities to take action?

Undoubtedly yes. A great job for which media must be commended.



I would change the word from trial to expose. Yes.


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www.ibnlive.com

www.ndtv.com

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Ws071010News_Channels.asp

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/cwg-lawn-bowl-turf-overpriced-nearly-6-times/128192-3.html

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/organising-committee-defends-cwg-deals/128200-3.html

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/the-how-when-where-and-what-of-cwg-2010/131654-5-

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http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cwg-scam-liquid-soap-dispensers-rs-187-&-rs-9-

379/656783/

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Ws071010News_Channels.asp

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/commonwealth-games-2010/news/UK-firm-charged-

over-six-times-for-CWG-overlays/articleshow/6402168.cms

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/07/29/corruption-threatens-cwg-2010.html

http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/games-watchdog-exposes-corruption-in-

cwg-projects

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