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NDTV pays supari to Salem on Manisha's behalf!
Premium channel plumbs depths of journalistic decency in lust for TRPs.
BY OUR MEDIA EDITOR
April 6, 2005: I have been tilting at windmills ever since a recent report was "broke" by NDTV at 9.00 PM on March 26. NDTV's Sreenivasan Jain gravely told us that night- matched by BREAKING NEWS logos and flashing tickers at primetime news - that gangster Abu Salem has implicated actress Manisha Koirala in her secretary Ajit Dewani's murder. According to NDTV, the deported gangster told his interrogators during brain-mapping and narco-tests in Bangalore that he bumped off Dewani becase Manisha Koirala paid him to do so. And we always thought Dewani was murdered because Salem's extortion demands were not met.
As is the practice now among journalists, there was no official version to support the story. There was no document to prove what the report said. Instead, Sreenivasan Jain spoke to his own scoop reporter, who vouched for the authenticity of his own report! If we believed the media, yes, the Evil Koirala had paid contract killer Salem to finish off her secretary over a financial dispute.
Manisha Koirala was away in Australia at the time of the NDTV discovery. NDTV said that Koirala could not be contacted, but still ran with the story. Could they not have waited till she was available? There was no official from the Anti-Terrorist Squad or Mumbai Police to support (or even deny) the explosive report. But clearly, NDTV does not believe in the old dictum of journalism that if a party is affected by your report, you should give him/her a chance to give his version. The NDTV attitude was - Just run with the story man, who cares about Manisha's reputation! Let her come back and deny the story if she wants! As for Salem, he is a gangster anyway.. Two hoots to journalistic ethics.
However, after inflicting heavy damage on Koirala, NDTV went ahead to say that narco-tests and brain-mapping are not evidence in Indian courts, and that there is no confirmation of the story from officials. And also, there was no one to confirm the report. Why the hell did they decide to run the story then? Gossip value? Obviously!
The reporter in question refused to quote any sources but stuck to his story that the revelation is from "brain-mapping" and "narco-tests." Now, one wonders how brain-mapping can be a basis for claiming that Salem spilled such beans. Brain-mapping involves giving certain stimuli to the brain - visual stimuli or auditory stimuli - which will provoke distinguishable reactions in the brain. From the reaction, it can be scientifically deduced whether the person had any association with the voice/visual. However, idiots at NDTV seemed to have thought that brain-mapping is a method to map out the hidden secrets in the brain. In Salem's case, an image/voice of Dewani ot Koirala may have produced such reactions; however, they are in all probablity nothing connected with Koirala's supari, but his own extortion moves.
By the next moring, the damage was done. Newspapers Times of India, Mid-Day, Khaleej Times, websites Rediff, IndiaTarget, Himalayan Times and Daijiworld and TV channel CNN-IBN, perhaps many more, picked up up the story and spread it far and wide.
The next day, the police roundly denied the story. A senior ATS officer said that the contents of the investigation are with him in a sealed cover, and no one knows its contents. Manisha frantically called up Maharashtra DGP PS Pasricha from Australia and sobbed to him that she has no role in the murder. A Times of India report the next day said (again, quoting shadowy sources) that Salem had indeed "named" Koirala, but did not specify if he named her as having given the supari.
ATS additional commissioner Jaijeet Singh denied the media reports to the DGP. Pasricha conveyed this to Manisha, and she was relieved.
According to criminal lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, the electronic media has thrown caution to the winds in reporting sensitive issues. This, he says, could have been a direct result of the pop campaign for Jessica Lall. We agree. "The accusations were made by a person (Salem) facing investigation and trial for a variety of crimes from extortion and criminal intimidation to murder and terrorism," says Jethmalani. Should media have played up a story allegedly by such a discredited person? NDTV thinks it is OK.
The NDTV "allegations" (we dont even know if they exist) do not mean that Koirala paid supari to Salem. The allegations, if any, first need to be verified by the investigators, before Manisha can be charged or let off. What if there was an allegation but investigation found it to be false? "Koirala would've suffered damage to her reputation and have undergone grave emotional distress," says Jethmalani. Even Salem's lawyer denied that he made an a statement implicating Manisha. Who pays her for the damage? Prannoy Roy?
Unlike NDTV, we are not privy to forensic reports on Salem which even Pasricha has not seen. So, we cannot comment on the truthfulness of the allegation. What we are clear is that by running a story without credible sources, by naming Manisha but not getting her version of the story, by tom-tmming the dubious story at prime time, by being the source for innumerable other news reports across the globe, and by not being forthcoming with an apology, NDTV has done tremendous damage to the institution of Indian journalism which is already on its last legs. I truly suspect that NDTV has honestly taken to heart rival CNN-IBN's tagine - that is OK to do whatever it takes, so long as the TRPs stay high.
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