The State of Indian Journalism

There are going to be several posts with this title I think.. so I am not going to trouble to number them.

This morning, I picked up the Hindustan Times, and there was a story about a British 15-year old who was found dead on a beach. The cops say it was drowning, the parents allege rape and murder. We now have a crusade about how foreign tourists are becoming targets, because they are 'easy'. True, these issues merit concern, and serious concern. But editorialising on the front page?

Arun Shourie -- as far back as I can remember -- was the pioneer of this brand of journalism. Just look at his front page editorials in the Indian Express in the early 1980s. But then, they were what they were intended to be: editorials. He signed them, making it clear to the reader it was an opinion being expressed.

This morning's story was not an editorial. It was a supposed to be a news story with a provocative headline. But that headline is more than provocative, it is an editorial statement masquerading as a headline. By picking a horrible incident, giving it a tabloid-like editorial headline, the paper proceeds to make what is a serious issue about our attitudes and identity just plain prurience: like watching a triple x-rated movie.

This is not a story just about Mumbai -- yes, the story that HT did about the girls being assaulted at the Juhu J W Marriott was appropriately shocking and woke us all up. But not this time. This time, its about a newspaper trying to use shock tactics, and in the process, will make us more immune to these events, and divert discussion on a set of issues that is legitimately the province of good journalism to plain sleaze.