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Defending news channels on the charge of
sensationalism, Goswami chided, "TV
enables you to speak your mind. What you
see is relevant TV and not sensationalism.
You need to add salt but not the spice.
What's popular news should not become populist
news. What we are witnessing now is a stridency
of news and non-news."
Ajay
Kumar added, "We believe in any news
that covers the common man's perspective.
Journalism is always good; there's nothing
bad about it. As long as people are talking
about you, we will continue to remain in
the business."
Sanghvi
merely put it in one line: "Defining
sensationalism itself is a tough task."
Answering
the charge that TV channels resort to sensationalism
for TRPs, Kumar said "This has become
a perception but the truth is that TRPs
never drive a channel. These measurements
are only meant to show it to the advertising
agency," Kumar sighs.
Goswami
stated that you need some index to measure.
Journalists
are often criticized for capturing disturbing
footages when there is a possibility that
they could have prevented the incident itself.
In one such case, a man immolated himself
but the reporter merely captured the entire
footage and did not make a single attempt
to prevent the tragedy.
Reacting
to this, Sanghvi said "That's the classic
dilemma of journalism. Should a reporter
be part of the story or merely report on
it? It's always a difficult proposition.
Though I agree that in this particular story,
the journalist should have intervened."
Goswami
adds, "The problem is that if our cameras
do not grab such footage, then the police
or the government might completely deny
occurrence of such an incident. Footages
serve as solid proof and immediate action
is taken. This happened in the recent case
where few unruly policemen from Haryana
assaulted that poor kid who they had accused
of stealing. Similarly, if our cameras did
not capture the assault on women in the
Bangalore pub, the Karnataka government
would have never acknowledged the incident.
It took the police two days to file a report
and after that we repeatedly showed the
footage."
During
the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, the unending live
footage by TV channels enabled terrorists
to locate the VIPs inside the hotel and
also give the position of the NSGs. A death
of a police constable was blamed on the
media.
Reacting
to this charge, Kumar said "Perhaps,
we erred in this regard but the government
too was late in awakening to this fact.
It is a lesson that we will have to learn."
Goswami
said his channel stopped the live telecast
the moment the NSGs asked them to do so.
The
only time that there was some disagreement
was about nondescript celebrities talking
on tragic episodes like the Mumbai carnage.
Goswami was of the view that for a change,
it was better to listen to normal citizens
and not politicians.
Sanghvi
disagreed and reiterated there was no point
having morons talk on such sensitive issues.
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