[Imc-india] Research project on "The ethics of sting journalism in developing countries"

[Arun Mehta]

At 24-09-02, kajal basu wrote:
>My name is Kajal Basu and I'm Executive Editor of
>tehelka.com, or whatever little there is that has
>survived the current Indian government's serial
>depredations. I'm doing a research project on "The
>Ethics of Sting Journalism in Developing Countries"
...
>2) Instances of what you
>consider ethical transgressions in methodology and
>that committed in the course of the stings; 3) Whether
>you think the transgressions were justified; 4) If
>yes, why, if no, why

Nobody else seems interested, so let me take a go:
1. In a sting, there might be an excuse for poor quality video, but never 
for poor quality audio -- after all, it is the audio that nails the person 
more than the video. Hiding a quality camera might be tough, but hiding a 
quality mike and minidisk recorder are easy.
2. People are convicted by media these days, so the information put out on 
the media must be treated like evidence. You should not hand out 
cut-and-paste jobs, rather the unedited tapes of the critical portions to 
the media. If you are doing cut-and-paste, you can easily distort what was 
said (oh, and while doing cut and paste, you certainly should not switch 
the order of the pasted items, i.e. put earlier what was said later!)
3. The transcripts you prepare must be authentic. Ideally, they should be 
made by an independent party.
4. You must not alter the contents in any way, e.g. record audio elsewhere 
and merge it onto the tape.
5. You must not resist demands for forensic examination of the material -- 
we all know how easy it is to tamper with electronic evidence.
6. You must be honest as regards technical issues, when dealing with legal 
authorities that may not be as clued on.
7. You certainly must not use prostitutes -- a person you have 
clandestinely filmed in bed with one, could be blackmailed into saying 
anything. This way, you cast doubt on all the material you have collected.

If this list is beginning to sound familiar, it should: these were all 
transgressions by tehelka during their "Operation Westend" sting into 
defense deals. Let me provide some backup for items 4 and 6 above (for the 
others, just ask):
4: Take a look at http://indataportal.com/tehelka/tampering.htm -- tell me 
that you have a better explanation for the sonogram, than that Mr. Samuel 
recorded some audio elsewhere (inadvertently picking up some tell-tale 
background noise in the process) and inserted it onto the audio track.
6: Tehelka claimed before the Venkataswamy Commission that with Hi8 tapes, 
you cannot independently alter audio and video. This is contradicted by 
Sony's equipment literature, and even by Shyam Benegal, 
http://indataportal.com/tehelka/benegal.htm

Why do I consider these transgressions to be serious? Firstly, because they 
suggest that people might have been framed. Second, because they lower the 
trust people place in sting journalism, which is a very important means of 
catching the corrupt. Third, because they lower the respect that the public 
has for journalists. And fourth, because at least some of the above 
constitute criminal acts.

Don't get me wrong: I think that tehelka's efforts at rooting out 
corruption are laudable. However, a perfectly good operation was almost 
ruined by such transgressions -- maybe tehelka should ask itself, if its 
current troubles are at least partly on account of decreased public 
support, as a result of such transgressions. The government alone cannot 
kill tehelka -- it tried with Indian Express in the late '70s, and failed.

If ethics and morals mean little, maybe the bottom line is more convincing.

Arun

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