About a year ago, Forbes India Special Features Editor Peter Griffin wrote about the 10 lessons on #journalism from Twitter in his blog, Life. NPS posted in a comment in response: “10 lessons every human being (non-journos) should learn:
1. Criticism is for everybody except journos. Dare you.
2. Anything and everything that a journo says is true. No one should question anything a journo writes.
3. If you work for a large media group, you can throw common ethics into air and can redefine morality.
4. Playing God is the favourite sport of media. Note: They have been authorized by God him(her)self.
5. All journos are uber-experts in all fields. Period. Rebuttal is not a known word.
6. Remember they can make news, even if there isn’t any.
7. If a journo can make your life, he has the every right to break it. Lynching by media is legal. Read lesson no.4. 8. A media house is the supreme judge. All courts in the world, take note. 9. 9 is new 10.”
The blog was nearly a year before the charges of sexual molestation levelled against Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal. Pertinent to highlight what India Today Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie wrote in his editorial/foreword to his magazine’s recent edition, the cover story of which was on Tejpal: ““Everyone has their own theory on why a man of such intellect, talent and success ended up being charged with sexual assault. Mine is a simple one. It is the ‘God’ complex which I have seen in so many talented men. They reach such heights of success that they live in their own world and think the normal rules of social behaviour don’t apply to them, neither do the laws of the land.”
Tejpal became a name to reckon in the – what some consider sacred -- halls of journalism with India Today. He joined the magazine in 1984 and even Purie admits, “Dare I say I liked him. He was a talented writer and knew it. In today’s terms, a ‘real dude’.”
Binoo K. John, who reported to Tejpal at India Today, writes about his fallen former boss: “No man in India achieved all that Tarun did. He took on governments with a panache only he could summon, he wrote the best Indian fiction, though the establishment and readers ignored it, he created the best Indian magazine and now it’s gone.”
So what goes wrong with men like Tejpal that they have to stoop to such levels, that is, if the sexual molestation indeed happened? Are people like him the ignorant victims of the irreverence that the profession of journalism practises? Or do journalists like him simply, by the very ‘licence’ they earn by successfully questioning every tenet, rule and law known to society, uncovering the lies behind the truths, uncovering whatever there is behind whatever there is, begin to think that no rule known to mankind or the society apply to them? One wonders, if there is an erosion of restraint and respect and whether all the irony and hyperboles in the hands of journalists are mere instruments of attack and abuse, which they are proud to flaunt.
Perhaps all are factual. Add to them the Wilde perspective of being able to resist anything but temptation, and the Tejpal incident becomes, well, a little palatable. But then why be shocked by it? Every profession, department or section of the Indian system is full of such incidents. So why the openmouthed amazement of a ‘God’ of journalism fallen from grace?
In the backdrop of the Tejpal stink, senior journalists have found the time to admit that such sexual exploitations are rampant within the profession but the victims keep quiet because of fear of not only losing their jobs, but also being forced to quit the profession altogether.
Senior journalist Vinod Mehta says, “It (sexual exploitation) is the worst kept secret in our profession but it dare not speak its name. Some of the biggest luminaries in Indian journalism stand accused. Who they are is known both inside and outside the trade.”
Most journalists spoken to point out to a near total disregard to laws of the land and morality in the media. A senior journalist who did not wish to be named summarizes: “There’s a disturbing trend overall but it’s much worse in the regional scene. Many journalists play God, completely lost in their own world. When we look for examples of a holier-than-thou person, they instantly come to mind.”
What has accentuated the problem is that journalists realize the imperative role they play in the Indian society, more today than ever before. With technology playing a crucial role in the media, the Fourth Estate has begun to impact our lives in a way that puts nearly everything in the witness box of society.
This has only ensured that editors become more powerful, still. But then, who will ensure that these bigger than life entities in the Indian system do not cross the line of control? Will legal regulations work to rein them in without harming the larger value of journalism? Or should it be journalism itself which can create a system of controlling the excesses many of its luminaries stand accused of?
These are questions that only the Indian media can answer.
Feedback: abatra@exchange4media.com
