Mid-day sting op makes Marathi press sore
Mumbai eveninger`s botched sting operation against the Maharashtra deputy chief minister inflames the regional press.
Prabhakar Kulkarni
The exposure of sordid truths is not just a duty of the media, but a public expectation. The ¿sting¿ is a legitimate - though often contentious - technique adopted by both the electronic and print media. But very often the media goes overboard in their choice of subject and modus operandi. A sting operation by the Mumbai-based evening daily Mid-Day against the
The Mid-Day sting was pure farce: a bar girl - presumably one of the thousands who would be out of a job if Patil¿s proposed ban on dance bars is enforced - approaches the deputy chief minister at his official residence Chitrakoot and asks about the dance-bar ban and ?plans for her rehabilitation.? She tries to snuggle up to an alarmed Patil, who backs away and tells her to keep her distance. Coincidentally, there¿s a photographer at hand who clicks pictures when the girl is up close to hapless minister. Patil, beginning to smell more than cheap perfume, asks the photographer to identify himself. The man admits that he is a press photographer, but denies knowing the girl. Shaken the minister summons his security guards and a quick check of their cell-phones reveals that the intrepid but inept duo are well acquainted.
Grilled by the police, the girl confesses that - surprise, surprise - she is not a bar girl, but a Mid-Day correspondent. In fact, both of them are Mid-Day staffers who were sent on this fishing expedition by their editor, which nets them little more than free hospitality in police custody on charges of conspiracy, trespassing, cheating by impersonation and abetment.
This incident, which occurred in mid-June, has created a stir among the media fraternity in general and the print media in particular. Journalists¿ organizations condemned the operation, especially since it was directed against Patil who has a reputation for uprightness. Prominent Marathi dailies came out harshly against the botched sting. The daily, Lokmat, said that both the method and the person targeted for the operation were poorly chosen and that the incident had cost the fourth estate its credibility. In fact, said the editorial, there are many other important subjects that deserve attention, like poverty and the appalling conditions in which the poor live. Corruption in the Mantralaya (government secretariat) was so rampant that no work, however legitimate, was done until money changed hands. Why not expose administrative corruption in the Mantralaya with a sting operation, asked Lokmat.
In another scathing editorial, the daily Loksatta drew attention to the warped mind-set of journalists who felt free to do anything made possible by electronic means. An earlier sting operation against film personalities who seduced girls on the pretext of giving them roles may have had some relevance, but to pick on an honest man like minister Patil was an egregious error of judgment. The way Mr. Patil exposed the malicious operation and trapped the bogus duo was not only commendable, but indicative of Mr. Patil¿s clean image and presence of mind, said the editorial.
In an editorial titled ¿Credibility In Danger¿, the Maharashtra Times grieved over the manner in which investigative journalism was giving way to yellow journalism. While both the woman journalist and the photographer failed, and were exposed, they had brought the entire journalistic fraternity into disrepute. Though the sting operation was obviously plotted by the evening daily, the journalist had been ready and willing to disguise herself as a bar girl, indicating the way young girls are persuaded to go to extreme lengths by the lure of a steady job. There are, pointed out the editorial, a considerable number of young girls in the media world, but most of them maintained their dignity and character. Young girls aspiring to make a career of journalism should keep this ideal before them.
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