After his sting operation, Aniruddha Bahal was surprised by viewers’ reaction. “They said it was fun watching (the TV telecast),” he said.
After his sting operation on bribe-taking MPs, investigative reporter Aniruddha Bahal was surprised by his viewers’ reaction.
“They said it was fun watching (the telecast of the sting operation),” Bahal recounted while delivering a talk in the city. “I felt like saying that it’s not a joke; you should be outraged.”
But viewers weren’t, and Bahal said he was worried. A society without outrage, he said, is a dead society.
Uniformly, the public reaction to his sting reaction, he said, has been that of cheering at the plight of the politicians, but their minds do not appear to have been stimulated into further thought or anguish.
There was no widespread anger either about the corrupt parliamentarians or officials in general. Bahal fears that his sting operations have been accepted as entertainment by the public.
In the city to deliver a talk on public accountability, Bahal is the centre –yet again—of a debate involving the media’s methods to ensure probity in matters of government.
He has been involved with operations that have uncovered match-fixing, bribe-taking party functionaries and now, bribe-taking parliamentarians. These operations have left him open to criticism that he has violating journalistic ethics.
His methods have been called undignified and invasive of people’s privacy. Besides, it has been argued that the sting operation as a public-service tool does not solve the problem of corruption; its critics contend that it merely creates a spectacle for people to enjoy.
Some commentators have also said that the sting operation would become so much of a fad with media organisations that viewers would get tired, or that it would be handled insensitively and become a means of entertainment.
But at the meet, Bahal said that the sting operation was an effective public-service tool.
He denied that sting operations had increased to the point of viewer fatigue.
He said that the dozen-or-so sting operations conducted so far in the country amounted to a fraction of the thousands of stories, electronic and print, produced here daily.
He said that the sting operation could be localised: city-based and regional media organisations could use it to tackle local issues.
He also denied that the sting operation was regarded by media organisations as a viewership-boosting move; his latest sting operation, he said, aired at 8am, and did not get a lot of viewers.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}