My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Reporters Vs Byte Collectors – The dilemma of news television in India By Deepak Parvatiyar (This article was published in Sahara news portal in 2009) In an open letter on the web to the National Broadcasters Association ( a body representing many of major news channels of the country) recently, BV Rao, who happened to be my editor in Free Press Journal in the early nineties, wrote about the superficiality of news television while lamenting the way the Mumbai terror attack was covered on the Television. “We could have cut down heavily on the empty hyperbole and lent substance and sobriety to the proceedings,” he mourned. Is that possible? For years…ever since the initiation of private news channels in the nineties…TV news content is on a gradual yet phenomenal decay.  If we thought we could beat BBC or CNN, our reporters woefully lack their exposure and experience. The more our tv journo try to ape them, the more they expose their limitations…and foolhardiness. Little

The Business of Journalism  By Deepak Parvatiyar (This article was published in Indian Media Centre's journal Media Critique in its October-December  2010 issue) S o you thought a business reporter is more of a gift voucher collector! That he/she is driven more by the power of the currency than issues of social equality and justice. You argue there is nothing wrong in that. After all, we are vigorously pursuing free economy and it is just a matter of time that rupee becomes fully convertible. So what is wrong if the reporter secures his/her livelihood in this era of highly competitive markets? Protectionism is history and jobs are as temporary as flight. So given an opportunity, why shouldn’t a business journalist make hay when the sun shines? We all are mortal beings after all! If with a stroke of the pen I do good to the fortunes of a company, isn’t it good for me? In an open market economy where virtually everything has a customer, value judgment is impractical.