'Media shows efficacy by exposing shocking crimes'

They say Sting Operations are in bad taste. But time and again the media have shown their efficacy by exposing shocking crimes and the dirty underbellies of society which would, otherwise, have never probably been noticed by the law-enforcing agencies. Are media more efficient in maintaining a vigil on social evils? V K Shashikumar, Editor Special Investigations, CNN-IBN, discussed this issue with IBNLive readers in a live chat in our chatroom on Monday. Excerpts from the interaction:-

Shekhar: Why doesn't media (when they caught culprits on tape) pursue the matter until the justice has been done to the victims/witnesses? Take any type of media, be it a television or newspaper, take up the issue with great enthusiasm in the beginning but suddenly stops, even discussing the issue after a little while. Why don't the media pursue the matter until the end until the culprit has been punished (so that the public's trust on the media increase)?

V K Shashikumar: The investigative story that we did yesterday was pursued to its logical conclusion. The baby was reunited with the mother and is under the care of the CWC. The traffickers have been arrested by the Delhi police and a case has been registered. Likewise there are many stories that are pursued to their logical conclusion.

Nagarajan: Sting Operations by media without indepth investigation may lead only to violent reactions as it happened in Delhi. Regional channels go for such sting operations to increase their TRP. What's the use of Sting operations if it cannot be taken to its logical end of punishing the guilty and helping the society.

V K Shashikumar: Basically all journalism is investigative. It springs from the need to answer basic questions: why, when, where and how. A sting operation is also a part of investigative journalism. But it should be carried out within ethical parameters and should be determined solely by asking one simple question. Is this sting operation in the public interest? There should be straightforward public interest associated with the reasons that justify the use of a hidden camera as an investigative tool to unearth evidence of wrongdoing.

Reza: What has so far been your most challenging sting? With regards to the background preparation needed and the overall risks involved? Also in a nutshell how do u sum up the key points needed to be kept in mind while investigating?

V K Shashikumar: In CNN-IBN we have a very severe protocol that determines the decision making with regard to a sting operation. First the CNN-IBN Special Investigation team generates evidence. Nine out of 10 times the evidence is gathered through a rigorous exercise of digging up official documentary evidence. In some cases, we go on a recce and find out what’s going wrong. In some cases we get tipped off from very very credible sources. We follow those tips through research and on ground verification. Once the first level of evidence gathering is done we shift gears and plan its execution. Most of our investigations are field based and based on classical and conventional investigative journalists where evidence is gathered from the field. Increasingly we are using instruments like the Right to Information to gather evidence. When we come to a stage where the story needs exposing a wrong doing that cannot be done by conventional methods, but yet we have enough evidence to back it up, then at this stage we begin strategising a plan to operationalise a sting operation. But 9 out of 10 times if we happened to be newspaper reporters we would already have the story ready to written and printed. But since TV is an audio visual medium we sometimes have to go that extra length to back the documentary evidence we have generated with audio-visuals. So first we try the regular route. But when that seems unlikely, that’s when a sting operation is planned. I hope this answers all the queries with regard to how and what determines a sting operation in CNN-IBN. Also, apart from all the processes mentioned above, a sting is only authorised if there is a clear and prescient and straightforward public interest involved in the expose.

Nnnn: Dear Shashi, congrats on your daring and intelligent work. My question is regarding corporate crime. Michael Moore in one of his earlier documentaries, talks about how the media, despite its endeavor to highlight crime in society, doesn't always successfully cover the large area of corporate crime. Examples abound in India too and the simple mention of Non-performing assets is evidence enough of corporate cronyism and crime being rampant in our country. Have you designed a way of exposing this? How, for e.g. would you expose a Hawala scandal or a Ketan Mehta type of crime?

V K Shashikumar: The Indian media does not have a good track record in exposing corporate crimes. This is a yawning gap and a huge area of public interest journalism is waiting to be tapped. To be very honest, no, we dont have a plan as of now to expose corporate crimes. At the moment corporate crimes fall in the media blindspot. CNN-IBN SIT has done some exposes like the one of overbooking and cheating by Air Deccan or recently the story of the world's largest cement manufacturer. La Farge, violating environment norms in Meghalaya and mortgaging a part of Indian land to banks in Bangladesh. We have done quite investigations on corporate crimes.

nisha82: Indeed media can play an important role in keeping a vigil on social evils and by doing so it can help in reducing crimes. For this it is important for media industry to focus more on these issues. One or two investigative stories in months can't solve the purpose. For this we need great will power and determination. At the same time media can also make people aware of their responsibilities and its their duty to realise them that its the common us (common man) who can make a difference. But vigil should be for social causes not for gathering gossip material.

V K Shashikumar: Media is a favourite punching bag for arm chair critics. The failure of India's criminal justice system to deliver, the massive corruption in the bureaucracy and the general sense of system collapse has pitchforked media into the spotlight...as if it is responsible for the mess and also for cleaning it up. The media's job is to inform and throw up issues for public debate. And by doing so inspire policy and mindset changes. Media is a change agent. It is not and should not be construed as an agent of change.

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Shahin Arora: I congratulate you and your whole team four this sting operation. These types of stings are really helpful to change the face of India. Sir, I have some of the stories full of corruption in our town Ferozepur.

V K Shashikumar: If you or anyone participating in the chat has tip offs or story ideas do write in to [email protected].

Nishim: Do you think the attempt to illeagalise Sting operation by government was justified.

V K Shashikumar: There is no way that any government in this country will ever be able to clamp down on the media. We won't be gagged.

Vishal: I have a question why only administration in big cities targeted for sting operations , why not target small municipal corporations which award bogus contracts and use sub standard material in maintaining cities like that of Faridabad and also the high handedness of the police in these cities where you have to shell out money even to file an FIR.

V K Shashikumar: If you have information on small municipal corporations or bureaucrats giving away bogus contracts feel free to tip us off at [email protected] the media is not a law enforcement agency. It is the fourth pillar of democracy. It is a watch dog and watch dogs need public support to be successful. We depend on pubic spirited citizens to give us leads and clues. Almost always we generate our own leads because we have a wide variety of contacts across various sectors of public life and those who are public spirited who empower us with information, leads and documentary evidence. You too can be whistleblower and help us to do our job. If you have any evidence or information of corruption or misuse of public money just write in to [email protected] and we will investigate the matter.

Hans: Sir, I agree with you that the investigative story on the child has come to it's logical conclusion. Was there any real impact of the story you did called Citizen X? If it is so easy for a person to get a passport for a few thousand rupees. It's been more than three years since my wife submitted her application and is still waiting in line. I wonder if that story has had any real impact?

V K Shashikumar: In many investigations the logical conclusions are not communicated through the channel. In the case of Citizen X investigation, we submitted all the documents we generated including the passport to senior officials of the intelligence bureau, a day after it was aired. The Government (Ministry of External Affairs) ordered an enquiry and we deposed before it. We submitted all the raw footage, documents, phone numbers and every scrap of information we had to the enquiry committee. The vigilance department of MEA has already finished the enquiry and submitted its reports. The touts at Bikaji Cama Place (Delhi's passport office) have disappeared. I am in direct contact with a senior official of the MEA with regard to the follow up action and so if your wife has not got her passport, do send all the details to [email protected] and I shall forward it to the concerned official for necessary action. So many times there are follow up actions but it is not reflected in the channel. But i agree with you that in the Citizen X investigation we did not follow up to the extent that we should have. Evidence coming from the investigation into the Hyderabad Blasts reveal that those who were involved had also created fake identities.

Busa:When you do a sting operation , you will definitely come across people who are honest , why you don’t highlight that aspect ?

V K Shashikumar: By definition a sting operation is an operation to unearth a racket, a corrupt practice or corruption or a wrong doing. Sting operations were first conducted by intelligence agencies to catch law-breakers in the act so to say. Now readily available modern technology helps journalists to go up close to these kind of people and expose them. So by definition sting operations do not come across good and honest people and if at all it does then the parameters under which such an operation was undertaken, obviously, are immediately proven to misleading and wrong.

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Namita: Delhi's sex racket is far too widespread than what you can see. Try and expose some big shots, I will salute you.

V K Shashikumar: We can only do as much as we can. if you have any insights on the involvement of 'big shots' do tip us off.

Malla: Unscrupulous builders in Mumbai are taking their customers for a joy-ride. They do not deliver what they promise. Also, delivery is not made on time. They arm-twist salaried class/middle-income group customers. Flat buyers have to buy parking too, failing which possession of the flat is not given. Despite clear legal guidelines that parking space should not be sold, builders do not bother. There is no respite for flat buyers who pay through their nose (first to the builder and then to the bank). Can you please as a responsible media look into the woes of flat buyers in the country? Can the builders be exposed? Builder - registrar nexus has reached new heights. Customers are made to pay about Rs.2000 and more in the form of cash, to register their properties, failing which the customer is made to run around pillar to post for some document or the other. Can you do something about it?

V K Shashikumar: : Of course they can be exposed. this is a good investigative idea to follow up. Do write in [email protected] with whatever information you have. We will try and build on that into a full scale investigation.

Rakhi: There are hundreds of cases where youths from Punjab and Haryana have got young girls from the Northeast in the name of marriage and then forced them into sex trade. Why doesn't CNN-IBN probe this?

V K Shashikumar: Again a good investigative lead for us to follow. Thank you. If you have further details feel free to write to [email protected] and we will certainly follow it up. This is the kind of interaction we want with our viewers and readers. Public interest journalism survives and is sustained by public spirited citizens like you.

Podimala: Can tightening the screws of law alone solve the problem? Isn’t poverty the real culprit is such nasty industries like selling wombs, body parts, prostitution and so on?

V K Shashikumar: Nothing justifies crime and corruption.

Vikas Menghwani: Media has done wonderful jobs in surfacing what is bad and invisible, agreed, it has driven the whole country towards better and scientific destinations but does that mean that the media can never be questionable, do you think there are areas in which media has not performed the way it should? What are the things you think media "does" but it should not "do"?

V K Shashikumar: Of course, media should always be questioned and scrutinised. It is a fact that there is an unsavoury shadow on unethical practices and questionable integrity in the conduct of journalists and the way they go about doing their job. And since media is in the business of education, informing and entertaining and must do so with unimpeachable integrity, it is of utmost importance that there are strong internal mechanisms within every channel to check, control and weed out undesirable elements and stories done with questionable intent and integrity.

Chandrashekhar: Dear Sir, Even though the BMW Expose was not done by CNN-IBN and was by NDTV, I am asking you this question on the media perspective. The BMW expose has been so clear that those business man is clearly involved in the incident (they even showed the top criminal lawyers of our country bribing and asking for money in the camera shown). My questions are as follows sir and i really appreciate if you can reply to them. 1. Only the NDTV at that time has exposed that sting and no other media even highlighted that incident. 2. All of a sudden, the BMW Expose which made waves on the media screen, suddenly disappeared from the camera. Most of the people are not aware of what happened to those 2 criminal lawyers who are involved and the case in a whole. How can any media let it happen?

They say Sting Operations are in bad taste. But time and again the media have shown their efficacy by exposing shocking crimes and the dirty underbellies of society which would, otherwise, have never probably been noticed by the law-enforcing agencies. Are media more efficient in maintaining a vigil on social evils? V K Shashikumar, Editor Special Investigations, CNN-IBN, discussed this issue with IBNLive readers in a live chat in our chatroom on Monday.

V K Shashikumar: The BMW case was followed by extensively by the media. The lawyers have had to present themselves before the courts. The case is being heard. On the contrary, this was one instance of a story that was followed up by the media.

Thank you all for joining me in this discussion. It was wonderful, as always, interacting with you all. And at the end of it, I would once again say the same thing: public interest journalism survives and is sustained by public-spirited citizens like you. At CNN-IBN, we believe in and practise participatory journalism. When you feel strongly about an issue, do write in to [email protected]. See you again sometime soon.