Blogbharti

A media house suing someone for exercising his freedom of speech- Kishore seems amused at the loss of irony:

Talk about corporate own-goals. Or worse, loss of irony. Blogger Chyetanya Kunte appears to have been coerced into making “an unconditional apology to Ms. Barkha Dutt, Managing Editor, English News, NDTV Limited and to NDTV Limited, for the defamatory statements… made regarding Ms. Barkha Dutt and NDTV Limited, in… post titled “Shoddy Journalism,” dated November 27th 2008, on my weblog at www.ckunte.com.?” It is not clear why he retracted. A Facebook discussion would suggest that NDTV and Barkha Dutt are involved in getting Kunte to apologise (link). But the issue has been picked up by other bloggers (link, link, link, link).

Dotthoughts would like to know, it seems- how could a blogger question admirable, sensitive, ethical, principled and venerable journalists?

Really, how could he say these things? That this is shoddy journalism? But how can it be, for they are admirable journos. He said that microphones were stuck in the faces of victim’s relatives and we all saw it on TV, didn’t we? But how can that be, for they are sensitive journos. He said sensitive information about where the hostages were, were broadcast and we all saw it on TV, live. But how can that be? They are ethical journos. He said information was extracted about hostages’ family. But how can that be? They are principled journos. He said it was unethical. But how can that be? They are venerable journos.

Would you like to send an email to Barkha Dutt asking her to tell us ‘how you made Chetan take his words back’? Go, fill the form at Aditya’s blog.

Like Amrutha, one would like to know: would the media pay the price it extracted from Kunte?

In that case, would they tender an unconditional apology to the Talwars for slandering them after the murder of their 14-year old daughter? Would they retract all the speculations they made on national television of the sordid details of Dr. Rajesh Talwar’s adulterous relationship with his colleague? Would they offer to bring back the time the family lost in mourning their daughter? Can they do it? Ever? Would they apologise to the Unnikrishnans for airing the news of their son’s death even before it was communicated officially to the family, thus shocking them into learning of such a tragic news through a flash running at the bottom of their television screens? Would they apologise for shoving mics, rather insensitively, into the face of the worried husband of a trapped guest at the Oberoi, and asking him how he felt? I guess not. Because they call it freedom of speech.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Blogging, Human Rights, Media, NDTV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.