The off-shoot footage of Arvind Kejariwal engaged in an interview with Punya Prasoon Bajpayee was
posted on youtube and made it public on another social medias to let
people know the collusive interview of AAP leader with AaJ Tak journalist. Surely, this kind of off-shoot footage is
deliberate attempt to show Kejariwal in bad light. At first place, to show this
footage in social media by particular journalist or the concern media house is
in very bad taste. It throws open the ethics of media as a whole, that too at a
time when media is already in the heated debate over being polarized and
heavily funded to support certain political parties in the coming election.
The intention of this footage making it public is a very well
interpreted tactics and participation of the channel concern is undoubtedly to
be believed what it tries to gain out of this leakage. On the wrong side, it
certainly maligns the image of Arvind Kejariwal in public but on the other side, justifies his image as tall as one who is a PM contender. Otherwise, the
question in the public space remains unanswered who will gain much out of this.
Not many thought this is a good news to play it on their
channel and rightly so. But Rajdeep Sirdesai took interest to address this issue
with utmost sincerity. He rightly understood that this kind of journalism is
not defined in the media sphere and it is going to question the credibility of media.
It will not bother much to those media houses which have already declared themselves to be the mouthpiece of a certain political party, but would
certainly question the image of a media being independent. As discussion is
already there in public space about the media being biased, Rajdeep tried to
clear the air and he justified that the particular clip of interview of
Kejariwal was already aired live and off-shoot footage is only a casual
discussion what a common journalist does usually before and after the
interview. Even in cases when the
interview has to go live journalist brief the person about the questions they
are going to ask to avoid interruption during the interview.
In case of interview being aired post production after editing
by newsroom, a copy of the same is given to the person whose interview is going
to be aired and if there is any conflict of interest, it gets resolved and
permission is sought before it is aired. I remembered once Amitabh Bachchan was
interviewed by Pooja Bedi for Amul India
show and Senior Bachchan was not happy with some of its content, so asked not to
air the show.
There is nothing special or unusual in this video for
journalists. But to the common people its fodder for fire and an instrument to
make of slandering accusation on Arvind Kejariwal and AAP. For those who are
AAP basher, it’s an issue to justify collusive interview. For supporter of AAP,
it’s a betrayal of media ethics and puts all media person under the lenses.
It’s difficult to understand who made this footage public –
Punya Prasoon Bjpayee himself or some insiders. But its leakage definitely
questions the credibility of his journalism career.
Media in a country like India is a first source of
information for anything – be it print or electronic. It makes or breaks the
images of individual and entities. It can aggravate and dilute an incident the
way it is presented. In fact, in real sense media builds the opinion on the
ground knowledge transformation to the common people.
Therefore, media has a social responsibility to be
independent and not influence the public perception by collusive news items. However,
having said so, the individual journalists and media houses are divided on
philosophy and polarized today. There is
also no ideological parameter to judge which media house and which journalist
is independent. People in public life have been blaming media for biased
reports and information and at the same time media also have never been clearing the
air too. They have been silent on the charges labeled by people on them.
Perhaps this is the first time any media person has taken a stand to oppose the
built perception against them.
A small section of the people, in media too, feels that
Punya Prasoon Bajpyee has been made scapegoat and his image as journalist has
been tarnished. Does this entire episode
of this video going viral on the social network and then taking the attention on
TV suggest media of being an example of crony journalism?
