Real world advice

IN Media Watch Briefs | 27/05/2016

Independent journalist Rana Ayyub  launched her self-published book,"Gujarat Files, Anatomy of a Cover Up"  in Delhi on May 27. It  is an account of her undercover investigation of those culpable in the Gujarat 2002 riots.  Ayyub said that when she came back with the sting after eight months, a senior editor at  Tehelka (where  she worked) dismissed it as the stuff of  coffee table books. She was later told to destroy the tapes. Other publications whose editors she subsequently met also declined to publish these stories. She had this advice for journalism schools: don't teach young, aspiring journalists about ethics and justice.  Better to prepare them for stories getting dropped because  of political pressure.