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New Delhi From the website of Vaishnavi Corporate Consulting, the public relations firm run by Niira Radia, a concise statement of what the firm offers its clients:
“Understand mindsets that lead to reporting patterns in news, editorial policies and leanings”
“Effectively represent our views to the media through position papers and regular interactions”
“Hence enable influencing of media views”
Unremarkable PR firm claims? Or a corporate mission statement that’s unwittingly only too apt?
Radia is at the centre of a growing controversy where the basic storyline revolves round questions on her influence and the mindsets of some media professionals. News magazines Open and Outlook published transcripts of Radia’s conversations with politicians, industrialists and journalists. Radia’s conversations with journalists have led to questions about media ethics, and some of the journalists whose conversations with Radia have been published have both defended themselves and asked questions about the tapes leaked so far.
There is now a central government-ordered inquiry into the Radia tapes. There’s also a petition in the Supreme Court filed by Ratan Tata asking the question whether the publication of the Radia tapes aren’t a violation of privacy rights. Tata’s companies are among Radia’s clients, as are other big corporate groups including Reliance Industries headed by
Mukesh Ambani.
THE CONVERSATIONS
The published transcripts feature Radia’s conversations with senior editors based in New Delhi and Mumbai. Journalists identified in the tapes include
Vir Sanghvi, Advisory Editorial Director of HT Media (publisher of
Hindustan Times);
Barkha Dutt, Group Editor, English News, NDTV;
Prabhu Chawla, Editor (Languages), The India Today Group; Shankkar Aiyar, former Managing Editor, India Today; and M K Venu, who was then
Senior Editor, The Economic Times, and is now Managing Editor of The
Financial Express, a sister publication of The Indian Express.
Radia’s conversation with Sanghvi and Dutt seem to have happened around the time the UPA-II government was being constituted in early 2009. The transcripts seem to indicate that Radia was seeking Sanghvi’s and Dutt’s help in securing the telecom portfolio for the
DMK’s A Raja and to keep another contestant, former telecom minister and DMK member Dayanidhi Maran, at bay. Also, the tapes feature discussions around the legal and corporate battle between the Ambani brothers on the
KG basin gas pricing.
From the published conversations, Sanghvi and Dutt appear keen to help Radia and also offer to mediate between the Congress and the DMK.
For example, Sanghvi says: “We’ve made a basic offer, if Karunanidhi responds to us and tell this that he would like to respond directly, he would like to talk to Ms Gandhi. He spoke only to Manmohan Singh. We would be more than happy but we’re not going to chase them now. We’ve told Maran that also they’ve to come back to us and tell us what they think of our offer. And apparently the DMK is getting very bad press in Chennai.”
In one of her conversations with Radia, Dutt is heard asking the lobbyist what she (Dutt) should tell the Congress; the context was that the Congress and DMK appeared to have reached a deadlock on the portfolio distribution issue. Dutt asks Radia: “Oh God. So now what? What should I tell them? Tell me what should I tell them?” Dutt is also heard offering to speak with Congress leaders on the DMK’s behalf and even promises action on their requests. “That’s not a problem. I’ll talk to Azad (reference to Congress leader
Ghulam Nabi Azad). I’ll talk to Azad right after I get out of RCR (apparently, referring to the Prime Minister’s residence, Race Course Road).
One of Radia’s conversations with Sanghvi also deals with the gas dispute between the Ambani brothers. In one instance, Sanghvi seems to be asking Radia on what he should write in his weekly column, Counterpoint, in Hindustan Times. “What kind of story do you want?” he asks Radia.
Sanghvi’s Counterpoint that appeared in the Hindustan Times on November 28 said the column is being discontinued for an indefinite period.
The conversation with Venu relates to the placement of a certain news story that Radia wants published. Venu tells Radia if she wants better coverage she should give the story to CNBC, a business news channel.
Chawla is heard discussing the row between the Ambani brothers with Radia. Radia appears to have called Chawla to seek his opinion on the ongoing tussle and the two talk about courts and developments within the government on the issue. “Abhi tak Supreme Court ka, between you and me, kuch finalise hua nahin?” asks Radia. To this, Chawla says: “Finalise ka matlab kya hai? Bhai, Murli Deora bhi jayega court mein. Prime Minister is also putting pressure on Murli Deora to settle it. Because ultimate it is national loss na, as you put it.”
THE ORIGIN OF THE TAPES
Open and Outlook have said the tapes and the transcripts are courtesy a petition filed by
Prashant Bhushan, an advocate, in the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into Radia’s role in the 2G scam. The two news magazines have said these tapes were from official phone taps that happened between May 11, 2009 and July 11, 2009.
According to a senior income-tax official who was part of the team involved in the phone-tapping, the I-T department was investigating cases of tax evasions and I-T violations by Radia and her various PR agencies. As part of the investigation, the department, after a go-ahead from the
Home Ministry, tapped Radia’s and some of her associates’ phones between August and October 2008 and May and July 2009. Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation was investigating several bureaucrats and individuals in the 2G scam case.
During its investigations, the CBI came across Radia’s name and asked the I-T department if it had any information on her. In a letter, dated November 16, 2009, Vineet Agarwal, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Anti Corruption Branch, CBI, wrote to Director General Income-
Tax (investigations), Milap Jain, asking if the I-T department had “any information or records pertaining to any middlemen including Ms Ni(i)ra Radia, regarding (the) award of UAS licenses”.
In response, Ashish Abrol, Joint Director of
Income-Tax, apprised Agarwal that the I-T department has been tapping Radia’s and some of her associates’ phones.
In his letter, dated November 20, 2009, Abrol wrote to Agarwal: “From conversations it appears that Ms N(i)ira Radia might have had some role with regards to the award of Telecom licenses…There are some direct conversations between Ms Radia and Telecom Minister (Raja)…” Abrol asked the CBI to collect the “extracts” of the conversations from his office.
On November 15, 2010, Bhushan filed a case in the Supreme Court with a copy of the “extracted” conversations and sought Radia’s interrogation in connection with the 2G scam. When asked about where the tapes came from, Bhushan said, “I cannot reveal the identity of my source. All I can say is that these conversations were tapped by the I-T department and the tapes were submitted by the CBI before the Supreme Court.” Explaining why he filed the petition with the tapes, he said: “The CBI has had these tapes for around a year but it didn’t bother to interrogate Radia in connection with the 2G scam.”
According to the I-T official, there are close to 6,000 pieces of conversations, out of which nearly 1,000 have got leaked.
MEDIA RESPONSES
No journalist named in the tapes has disputed the fact of the conversations with Radia. “I am not denying these conversations (with Radia),” said Sanghvi. “But at the same time, I am mystified about the source of these tapes and also the timing of the leaks,” he said. “It has been suggested to me that somebody in the
government may have leaked these tapes to set the media on itself,” he said. Another journalist named in the conversations said: “The selection of the tapes and the manner in which they were released also make it seem like a case of corporate rivalry but in any case, the leaks have managed to deflect the ongoing debate on the government’s silence on 2G scam to the media.”
When contacted, Outlook’s editor-in-chief Vinod Mehta did not want to speak on the issue and the magazine’s editor Krishna Prasad regretted “not sending in a response” to questions sent on email. Open’s editor Manu Joseph, in response to a questionnaire sent by this newspaper, sent a note saying: “Open is sure of the authenticity of the recordings. That is the reason it ran the story.”
The journalists in question have denied any wrongdoing. Venu has initiated legal proceedings (civil and criminal defamation) against Outlook arguing that the magazine’s insinuation that he was part of the lobby — that “put Raja in the Cabinet” — was incorrect and defamatory since there’s no reference to Raja in the transcripts.
In a statement on NDTV’s website, Dutt said “the one sentence being used to damn me, ‘Oh God, What should I tell them’, is in fact two separate sentences, neither of which are related to A Raja or the telecom
portfolio at all. When transcripts are edited and capture neither tone nor context, the message is severely distorted.”
She said that “the magazines that published the tapes themselves have flouted several principles of good journalism… They didn’t cross-check anything before publishing the said tapes”.
Some media veterans see the issue differently. “Nobody can deny the existence of lobbyists and PR people in the political or corporate space. It is a fact that journalists have to deal with such people while chasing stories and powerful people. There is nothing illegitimate in this,” said B G Verghese, former editor of Hindustan Times and The Indian Express. “There is no suggestion of corruption or any wrongdoing on the part of the journalists in the tapes. If at all, they come across as willing listeners and this is no crime.”
The issue has received some play in the US media, with The
Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post having reported on it. There have also been responses from media observers. “There is a clear clampdown, an orchestrated silence, in the media on this issue. Television news channels, which will pounce on the slightest hint of a controversy, have not even found the issue worthy of examining, forget about chastising people from their own fraternity,” said Santosh Desai, a columnist and CEO of Future Brands, the company that manages all the brands owned by retailer Future Group.
“Even if no quid pro quo is established, there is a clear evidence of power broking in the conversations. Journalists (in the conversations) seem quite comfortable in the role of players and those who peddle influence…they seem at ease in a space that they are not supposed to be in. And this is neither good for journalism nor for the democracy,” said Sevanti Ninan, an independent media observer.
Vir Sanghvi /Advisory Editorial Director with HT Media Ltd (publisher of the Hindustan Times and Dainik Hindustan)
In at least three instances, Radia is seeking Sanghvi’s help in reaching out to the Congress leadership and Sanghvi assures her of help. Sanghvi also seems to be discussing the content of his yet-to-be-written HT column. An email to Rajiv Verma, CEO, HT Media, asking him about the company’s stand on the tapes did not elicit any response. On November 28, Sanghvi, in Counterpoint, his column, announced that he was “taking a break” from writing the column. “I do not deny that these conversations happened, but the tapes have been doctored and the context tampered to give the conversations a certain slant,” he told The Indian Express.
Barkha Dutt / Group Editor, NDTV
Radia seems to be seeking Dutt’s help in resolving a logjam between the Congress and the DMK, and Dutt says she will communicate Radia’s and her bosses’ stand on various issues to Congress leaders. Said Dutt, “I never passed on any message to any Congress leader. But because she was a useful news source, and the message seemed innocuous, I told her I would. Ultimately, I did no more than humour a source.” In a statement, NDTV Group CEO and executive director Narayan Rao said, “To caricature the professional sourcing of information as ‘lobbying’ is not just baseless, but preposterous”.
M K Venu
Senior editor of The Economic Times at the time of the conversation; now managing editor of The Financial Express, a sister publication of The Indian Express
Venu and Radia discuss industry gossip; Radia seeks Venu’s opinion on whom she should give a certain story to. Venu says she should give it to an organisation that will display it prominently. Venu has initiated legal proceedings (civil and criminal defamation) against Outlook arguing that the magazine’s insinuation that he was part of the lobby — that “put Raja in the Cabinet” — was incorrect and defamatory since there’s no reference to Raja in the transcripts.
Shankkar Aiyar
Managing Editor with India Today at the time of the conversation
Discusses Cabinet formation of the UPA-II. Radia communicates with him on the portfolios that DMK wants for itself in the new government.
Ganapathy Subramaniam
Senior Assistant Editor, The Economic Times
Shares with Radia the placement of reports in the newspaper.
When contacted, a spokesperson of the Times Group said: “Media should refrain from publishing private conversations that merely serve to titillate and can damage individual reputations… A story has to go through many editorial filters before it appears in ET, which is often frustrating for PR agencies…We are watching the situation and reserve our right to act against individuals and publications if they harm the image or credibility of our brands.”
Prabhu Chawla
Editor (Languages), The India Today Group
Chawla’s conversation with Radia is about the gas dispute between Mukesh and Anil Ambani. Radia seems to have called Chawla to seek his opinion on the gas dispute case being fought by the two brothers in the Supreme Court. Chawla and Radia discuss the possibility of the Supreme Court judgment being fixed. Aroon Purie, chairman and editor-in-chief, India Today Group, didn’t respond to an email from The Indian Express. In a statement, Chawla said: “The 13-minute conversation had nothing to do with the controversial 2G of A Raja. Niira called me as she said ‘to seek my expertise’ on the ‘Battle for Gas’ between the two Ambani brothers. I merely told her that the earlier the brothers put an end to their private battle, the better it will be for the public good.”
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Where do you begin to learn how to write? Where can you find out what other people think of what you write? Can you learn from other people's mistakes? 
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All informed people know that it is a routine practice to offer a bottle of Johnny Walker Whiskey with crisp tandoori chicken in a decent restaurant is enough to get any personal or business advertisement published as "news" in many mainstream newspaper/electronic media in India. Majority (if not all) of Indian news media is sponsored/owned by either political parties or big industries.
It is a great opportunity for Indian democracy that international media (cable/satellite TV) and internet is making rapid inroad to Indian homes. Indians no longer solely rely on what their political masters say or what Indian (purchased) media advertise. Now they are more open to access different views and express their own views in many websites (where server is outside India), media forums like this one.
Sense of justice, morality, ethics and accountability is the thing of past. It will be unfair to told journalists alone on fire.
There is also the issue that there are other tapes with the same lobbyists discussing spectrum allocations with the likes of Ratan Tata/ Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, and influencing the ministers decisions.
One can understand (if not agree) the need to secure business against competition, the corollary to which is that you have to use dirty means if the competition is doing it - but I would have thought that the top corporate houses should be asked to lead the way in cleaning up and not to actively perpetuate it.
Surely Mr Tata can call the PM and ask for a transparent bidding process if he sees something like this occuring ?
I am not requesting them atleast see/read what they are posting/broadcasting because its not about their reputation but for a nation's
You must go back and read your own articles and see how stark your critisim has been on various other issues, hell your last article on a poor man trying to capatilize on his daughter's fame was very harsh, compared to this very soft worded mention of what goes on openly.
I am pretty sure Barkha wont get time to read this, since she is busy defending herself on her OWN channel, what an apathy, the lady who went to kargil than faught mercilessly against Modi, only to be caught in corruption, how bizare how bizare !!!
Sautik, r u from the same creed as Barkha, r u still afraid to talk of the underbelly of Indian Politicians, still scared of talking about TRUTH ? I guess BBC made a mistake in taking you on board....scared arent you?
The best possible solution is to have a truly autonomous, public funded media in line of BBC or PBS/NPR. In that sense, Akashvani and Doordarshan is the answer, provided they are truly autonomous (free from ruling party or Government influence).
Lately I am realizing that corporate handling of many important issues that have severe implications on general public should not be handed over to corporates. Now I am shifting my bank accounts from ICICI, HDFC type private banks to Government banks like SBI. For small and marginal investors SBI is safe (in the long run) and less prone to cheat.
As the BBC bureau chief in South Asia I have had to deal with several cases of people pretending to be offering authentic BBC training courses.
Young and not so young hopefuls cough up their cash to the "man from the BBC" and then he is never seen again.
When dodgy qualifications are not enough, some people offer other incentives for potential employers.
One young woman described herself in the opening line of her CV to my office as being "young and vivacious".
There's no hard evidence yet of the casting couch being wheeled into the nation's newsrooms. But the scourge of the modern Indian TV channel, the warfornews.blogspot.com website, is full of accusations of sexual harassment of young women by more senior staff.
For more, read the whole story in BBC.
We know how British media went over the top during the unfortunate death of Princess Diana.
Aside: What I find interesting about this text editor is that patronise shows up as a spell check error. Has BBC succumbed to American spellings?
http://www.beedictionary.com/definition/patronise
But India has a long way to go, as many impoverished and middle class families rely mainly on TV (and print media) for information. More such media shift to advertisements to generate its revenue, more it will lose its neutrality and unbiased news analysis. On top of that over all level of corruption will put more pressure on few remaining honest journalists and news media managements.
A very easy way to compare qualities, all one needs to do is view such websites of India newspapers and some better known sites such as BBC. The home pages of Indian newspapers are filled with links for Bollywood trash and never ending saga of India cricketers.
If the newspapers and their websites are bad, one should view the various TV channels in India. When this reader visits Calcutta or any such major city in India and wants to view TV, a huge majority of TV channels (and there are so many) are peddling what can be very politely termed as trash.
Unless Indian media becomes credible and mature, it CANNOT be an effective societal change agent - which India badly needs.
It is almost impossible to have a neutral discussion/debate in any Indian news channel or news websites or social forums. The conclusions are fixed long before it actually start, just like Indian "investigations" by any commission or CBI. People who depend on such "expert" comments on TV or radio or Indian news portals/forums get a totally biased/wrong view and so keep on fighting among themselves.
He who owns the media, controls the media. With such powerful platforms they are able to drown out independent media and control public opinion and government policy. There can be no freedom without freedom of the press and there can be no freedom of the press if only a few powerful corporations are allowed to own it.
Check the link http://www.whoownsthenews.com/
BTW one of the recent news which even BBC failed to report was when China and Russia Dump Dollar in Mutual Trade was it no No Big Deal????
Theatrics has long become the main stay of news reporting. A great example for journalism for sale even at lesser places is the Bengali news channel Star Ananda in Calcutta. It is part of the large conglomerate of media companies owned by a powerful media tycoon and are hell bent of being biased in favour of the opposition party in the state of WB.
You have to watch their news cast and understand how they distort news and present it in a way sometimes absolutely different from reality.
Lastly Vir Sanghvi is visiting Spas on TLC, guess all that lobbying is stressful!
If I may also have a PS request at the end, can BBC Panorama do a investigation into the 2G Scam in India...
India being the largest democracy in the world, depends upon its unbiased press for its true meaning and it is very disheartening to see the TV channels reporting the silly stories of crime day and night. A press should report and make its viewers and readers aware of what is going on so that they can make their own viewpoint. But when the stories like this come up, the whole thing becomes a big question mark.
Regarding Ms. Dutt, someone who became a darling of the nation during Kargil war, has clearly lost her objectivity and perhaps succumbed to galore of high life. Due to her apparent 'connections' to politicians she may have become indispensible for NDTV as well.
Perhaps this is the time for pioneers like Mr Roy to be counted and perhaps secure his true legacy and be counted among post independent Indian greats like TN Seshan, K Rao, MS Swaminathan, JP Narayan etc.
The cases of BDutt and V Sanghvi are deplorable. It is self evident what Nehru DynastyTV stands for.
This is a million dollar question today.
The leak of Radia’s tapes has tainted, besides business tycoons and politicians, a few of the hitherto respected Media persons also.
Most of the Politicians are corrupt and dishonest. However the contrary is the case with the Media, Most of the Media persons are honest, upright and fearless and so there is no threat as yet to the foundation of the institution called the “Fourth Estate”.
Ratan Tata, instead of proving that he is above suspicion, has done the mistake of filing a case in SC for preventing further leaks of the tape citing erosion of his privacy. If unfortunately SC bans further leaks of the tape ( though the chances are bleak), many truths may not come out at all, compromising the entire nation’s economic interests. May be he was inspired by NDTV to do it. Please note that it was NDTV which interviewed him on this. Uniting the aggrieved !
While Hindustan Times has been non committal about Vir Sanghvi, NDTV has announced its complete support to whatever Barkha Dutt has done ( and may be doing).
Even if media persons linked to the tape- conversations ultimately are found guilty of power-brokering, (certainly for some consideration! So far it seems like that, unless proven otherwise), these few black spots in the media will not affect the entire institution which stands erect and will stand erect for years to come.
It is very important that the rest of the media should not try to protect the persons under cloud. Let those who are accused, themselves prove to the world that they have had no axe to grind or at least apologise that they indeed went off the right path.
It is really becoming harder to remain optimistic about Indian society day by day.
I agree with Bakhtawar (#29) that 'When character is lost, everything is lost'.
And most unfortunately, we always blame OTHERS but never look at ourselves! Be it media or police or politician or Supreme Court judges. We think we can do anything to serve OUR interest but others must do their duties with full honesty and dedication!!!
How many of us have the guts to oppose corruption, unethical behavior in our own work places and homes? How many of us bring up our own kids with a strong backbone and teach them to oppose corruption? Not many I think. Media, politics, industries, govt babus all are just part of us. They ARE us. We need to change ourselves to expect anything different in India or anywhere else in the world.
Probably less privileged, illiterate people have better sense of ethics and justice compared to "educated" people with "exposure", because they still face punishment for doing something wrong or even without doing any wrong to save someone more powerful. That is a very routine in India, not any exception anymore.
The cumulative result is very frightening, as we can see now. Fast spread of extremism (Naxal or otherwise), widespread breakdown of almost all democratic institutions. Most frightening is people is fast losing trust on almost anything, and are showing higher tendency to take laws into their own hands. How can we blame them?
Thank to social media and world WWW that our voices are not totally stifled. This trend started in 2002, it has achieved a status that most of are unable to fathom completely. Every news and discussion has been subsumed to serve one party and its promoters.
The young Indians have been at the receiving end of a media blitz for last 8years 24 X 7 which has steadily deprived him of his ability to think objectively and independently. This outrage is towards that. Sense of betrayal of having been sold hook line and sinker on what ever was presented by these self proclaimed and appointed conscience keeper of Modern India.
Role of media and politics has been an area of special interest to me. Have blogged consistently rebutting many of the claims that have been made in the print medium by individuals from Electronic and print media.
http://www. ioretradingindia.blogspot.com/
1. Vir Sanghvi's bad karma at play.
2. From The Dizzy Heights of Kargil to Despairing Depths of Oblivion
3. Mirror Mirror on the wall expose this face before all.
4. Face The Nation Sagarika Will You??
Hope this would enlighten the readers a little more about the challenges that we are confronted with.
Fine we know that what are doing about it is what should concern us. ranting is not going to get us anywhere.
The least one can do is condemn it and express views which are positive and compel other to follow suit.
Please read this the link is http://www.ioretradingindia.blogspot.com
"Why would a journalist seek refuge and retribution from the laws of the land?"
Lets join hands and work to cleanse the system. All contributions of ideas small & large will make a difference.
We all will face the consequences. Our previous generations accepted corruption as a part of our lives. And if we do not do anything now, our next generation will face much worse situation after sometime.