Should media do more of its own investigations?

My recent visit to google news revealed yet another scam, this time in my home state of Tamil Nadu - Granite scam. The issue made me think about what our society has evolved into. Research shows that over 80 scams came to light in the last two years - most of them revealed with the help of whistleblowers. I wrote a piece on how this impacts journalism and society at large. It was published by the The Hoot. I am reproducing it here for your convenience. I look forward to your comments.

(Image Courtesty: http://sushantskoltey.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/scams-scandals/)

In the last one year, India has seen several scams – Coal gate (over misallocation of coal blocks), NRHM land scam (Uttar Pradesh), Toilet scam (All India), Irrigation scam (Maharashtra), mining scam (Goa) and the most recent being the granite scam (Tamil Nadu). Popular media has broken these stories primarily based on whistleblower information and done a fair bit of reporting on developments around them. What the media has not done is help detect these scams in advance before they ballooned into several thousand crores, denting the economy. This reflects the state of investigative journalism in the country and the unwillingness of leading media houses to encourage such stories.


In the recent past only a handful of scams have truly been unearthed by the media – the 2G scam involving Nira Radia, some journalists and former Ministers Kanimozhi and A. Raja (broken by Open Magazine), ISRO – Devas scam (The Hindu), Defence Equipment procurement scam (The Week) and Adarsh Housing society scam (broken by Indian Express in 2003, with little follow up until 2010 though). This comprises only four of the 80 plus major scams that have been reported by the media since 2010. (The list referred to here is by no means exhaustive; it points to scam stories that most leading media houses carried). The rest were revealed by whistleblowers (whatever their reasons) and reported by the media. This is unlike the past where large corruption was often exposed by the media taking the lead. The Securities scam 1992 (unearthed by Sucheta Dalal, then with Times of India), the 2004 expose showing the involvement of key BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders in the Godhra riots, cash for votes scam 2008 and the bribery and corruption in the Ministry of Defense (both unearthed by Tehelha magazine) are some popular stories that were carried by all media outlets. Such caliber of journalism made the media reprise its role as watchdogs of society, and made the establishment wary.

Today, however, such journalism has been more or less relegated to niche publications, with popular media by and large relying on third parties to unearth scandals. This needs to change and leading media organizations should take their role of watchdogs seriously and encourage investigative journalism.

Investigative journalism has one objective – discovery of truth. While this should form the core of journalism itself, it seldom does. Most media organizations and reporters are happy merely reporting what they see as long as there are some facts and figures backing their reports. Few bother questioning these facts and figures at first glance or go beyond them to see if something is amiss. This is why Indian media in recent times has relied on whistleblower sources to detect most scams. Over time, such reporting has made even journalists complacent, where one is merely interested in getting the story aired/ published “first”, before the rest of the gang catches up. Not only does this produce shallow content where the journalist merely reproduces the whistleblower’s version of the story followed by versions of other sources, it takes focus away from the larger issue thus defeating the purpose of such an expose’.

Take the case of the irrigation scam. Times of India, cleverly claimed that they had unearthed the scam over a period of six months by showing various seemingly disjointed reports that they had published over the last six months. Two reports in April 2012 focused on the Balganga and Kondhane dam project costs being hiked by over 100 percent and 500 percent respectively. A subsequent report in June said that one of contracts had been terminated, but provided no other information. Four months later in August the newspaper published a story on why these costs were hiked. While this qualifies for an expose’ on the health of specific projects, by no means does the report indicate a wider scam in the making.

Further, when Times of India did break the irrigation scam story it quoted sources who not only said the state had spent Rs 70,000 crore in irrigation projects, but also shared various other information that the journalist should have ideally researched on. The facts quoted in the report were attributed to the Maharashtra Economy Survey Report and the Central Water Commission. Surprisingly, both these reports are released every year and copies of reports dating as far back as 2006-2007 are available on their respective websites. Why is it that the newspaper waited this long to expose the scam, considering the dam project costs were hiked frequently? Is it because a hike of say 20% cannot be considered important enough to report, vis’-a-vis’ a hike of say 150%? Why did the reporter not go beyond investigating three irrigation projects in Maharastra, when there was data available to indicate that the health of other projects could be no better?

Had the reporter on this beat noticed and questioned these issues earlier, the scam could have been nipped in the bud. It may not have got the required level of attention on front page but the lives of people affected could have been improved.

Perhaps this is the reason why the toilet scam received step brotherly treatment from media houses. News broke on April 18th,2012 when Telegraph broke the story of disparity in figures of the Union Rural Development Ministry and the Census pertaining to the number of latrines built. A gap of 3.5 crore latrines was indicated. Despite the first mover advantage, the newspaper stayed away from doing any follow up stories that could give a more definite shape to this scam. Times of India followed it up a week later putting a figure of Rs 2,900 crore as the value of the scam in Uttar Pradesh where most toilets had gone missing. Beyond that the report did not probe the reasons for such a scam, nor did it mention the contractors responsible for these latrines or why such data was over reported. The next story on August 16th, was generic in nature and reported that gram Panchayats would be held responsible for ensuring that requisite number of toilets were built in their respective jurisdictions. Where is the investigation in any of these reports? At best, all these stories are examples of clever statistic-play and numeric calculations.

The most recent granite scam in August this year, was revealed when former district collector of Madurai U. Sagayam’s letter to the Principal Secretary of the State Industries Department was leaked. The letter alleged a loss of around Rs 16,000 crore to the state exchequer due to illegal mining along with suggestions of how the scam was being perpetrated. Considering the amount of information already available on the case, most newspapers seem to have taken a stand of merely reporting developments. A report in the Frontline summed up the situation well. It says “The issue [of illegal mining] has for long been highlighted by environmentalists, social activists, functionaries of non-governmental organisations and leaders of Left parties. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, while campaigning for the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) during the Assembly elections last year, referred to the revenue loss suffered by the State owing to illegal granite quarrying.” The piece indicates that the government chose not to act on this issue until the letter found its way into the public domain. Why did newspapers too remain silent, if information on illegal mining was already available? Could their expose’ on the issue not spur the government into action much earlier?

A good case in point is The Week’s investigative report on the aftermath of the Rs 35,000 crore Goa mining scam (originally exposed by FirstPost). The report details how the region’s ecological balance has been disturbed due to mining, severely impacting agriculture and economy in those regions. It also provides information on the mining scam which was hitherto unreported, such as who was responsible for the mining activity, the modus operandi and tell tale signs that authorities chose to ignore. However, it is seldom that one sees leading media organizations carrying a blend of investigative and popular news stories.

Niche publications like Tehelka (which perhaps pioneered sting operations and revived the culture of investigative journalism in India), Open Magazine and FirstPost still manage to focus on investigative stories, no matter how small or large the scale of wrongdoing. Open recently exposed a smuggling and sex racket involving Uzbeki women and Indian customs officials where an estimated Rs 5 Crore was paid in bribe money to evade duty of around Rs 50 crore. FirstPost exposed the Goa mining scam.

Tehelka recently exposed the PDS food grain scam in UP (estimated to be worth Rs 2 Lakh crore) involving Food and Supplies Minister Raja Bhaiya. The Minister built a personal fortune of Rs 100 crore in four years stealing and diverting food grain meant for the poor, during his former term as Food Minister. It also published a shocking expose of the attitude of senior policemen in the NCR-Delhi region (which incidentally has reported the highest number of rape cases) towards rape. The piece showed apathy, prejudice and misogynist attitude towards women who filed rape cases, and indicated how they never believed rape could occur because “the woman is at fault” and “asked for it”. The Raman Singh expose highlighting corruption, nepotism and questionable business dealings in Chhattisgarh , was yet another investigation by Tehelka.

Magazines like the Outlook also come up with investigative stories occasionally. The publication unearthed the Rs 2500 crore rice scam in 2010 based on a RTI query pertaining to ban of Basmati rice, which in reality was not enforced. It exposed the NTRO’s dubious practice of tapping the phones of senior political leaders. It also published a brief report indicating land grabbing by past President Pratibha Patil’s son in Amravati. Although brief, it indicated the questionable manner under which land was being allocated to an educational society managed by then President’s son on the mere basis of a letter to the government with little or no scrutiny. Rare for a TV channel in recent times, CNN-IBN exposed the Odisha mining scam valued at Rs 3 lakh crore.

What is perhaps worrying is that many of these stories were not carried by other media publications and hence did not get the required visibility for readers or got the government to act. In an age of scams, social media and citizen journalism, it would greatly benefit society at large if TRP/ readership focused media organizations can develop the stomach for investigative journalism. If nothing, it would cure them of the one issue they have perennially faced - surviving the clutter of news.

The Insider Reports: World Classical Tamil Conference – banal reporting

Growing up in Tamil Nadu and being a Tamilian, I have surprisingly never quite understood the insane ferocity with which anything Tamil was constantly defended and everything else was instantly branded "Anti-Tamil".

I have believed that a language or culture is kept alive by making it current and easily accessible to the masses. Tamil to me seems outdated and may soon become the exclusive domain of the few who only attempt to complicate it further ("keeping it pure", they would say) – strangely like Sanskrit, who the Tamils supposedly detest.

Therefore when the recently concluded World Classical Tamil Conference, costing the State at least Rs 400 crore, ended up as an exercise in nostalgia and possibly no real purpose, I could not sit still.

The result was an article that gave vent to my frustration over the media lapping up the Tamil propaganda and not raising any relevant questions. The Hoot, published this piece on July 3^rd and I am sharing the link and details below. Request your comments.

http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=4667&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=2&valid=true

Making light work of a literature meet

English media covering the World Classical Tamil Conference did not highlight the fact that the meet was an exercise in nostalgia which failed to give a direction for the future development of the language. ARCHANA VENKAT says the coverage could have been more incisive.

Posted Saturday, Jul 03 18:05:53, 2010

The recently concluded World Classical Tamil Conference (WCTC) was an exercise in nostalgia with no clear direction on the future of the language. Unfortunately, the English media* covering the event seems to have missed highlighting this vital aspect, choosing to focus on incidents of petty one-upmanship and propaganda.

Five days and close to Rs 400 crore (including the Rs 100 crore announced for a Tamil Development Fund) were dedicated to an initiative that failed to indicate how this language can empower the present and future generations. Most of the themes discussed (http://www.ulakathamizhchemmozhi.org/en/content/theme-conference ) were efforts to trace the growth and accomplishments of Tamil from its origin to the present ??" something that has also been a feature of the eight international Tamil Conferences held between 1966 and 1995.

Only the World Tamil Internet Conference 2010, which happened alongside the much bigger WCTC, brought to light relevant aspects such as e-governance and computing in Tamil to aid in the growth and development of the State. Predictably the internet conference, owing to its lack of political content, did not see as much media attention.

The "recommendations" made at the end of WCTC were reported by the media without any attempt to evaluate and analyse their merits. Sample these:

1. Tamil be made the official language at the Centre. This is not the first time such a demand has been made. However, no news report mentioned that the issue had been quashed citing Articles 343 (1), 342 (2) and 343 (3) of the Constitution. This fact, if posed to the political bigwigs during the conference, was not reported. The Times of India in its editorial on June 29 makes a passing reference to this, perhaps after seeing that the rest of its reportage had ignored this point.

2. Tamil as official language in Courts. This demand was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2006. The Law Ministry said it would not object if the State wanted to conduct proceedings at the Madras High Court in Tamil. Consequently this year one case was argued in Tamil. Did the media question if this would improve the functioning of the judiciary and if cases would be dealt with faster? Rather than analyzing the issue the media has restricted itself to reporting on the protests outside courts. The latest writing on this topic was by The Deccan Chronicle on June 22. Unfortunately despite the heavy presence of State and Central political leaders at the WCTC, no journalist seems to have thought it prudent to raise this issue.

3. Funds for research on "mythical" Kumari Continent and Poompuhar. No details were sought on the rationale behind the project, what it would entail and how it would benefit the common man.

4. Funds for Tamil books in science, economics and geology. Reporters could easily have questioned how such a step would help future generations when higher academic research as well as jobs requiring the study of these subjects would be English based. This issue should have been raised particularly in the light of the media's criticism of the recently started Civil and Mechanical Engineering courses (around 1,800 seats) in Tamil. These are exclusively for students from Tamil medium schools and the media has said that the state was experimenting with these students, few of whom would find jobs unless they picked up English language skills. The New Indian Express, in an uncharacteristically banal report, aired populist sentiments at the venue. It is ironic that the scientists quoted in the story, despite hailing from Tamil medium schools, opted for jobs in the Central government and not within the State. The genial Dr. Sivathanu Pillai, the distinguished scientist who is the chief controller at the DRDO, would surely have responded if he had been quizzed on this.

5. Law to be enacted to give preference to Tamil-medium students for Government jobs. Only The Deccan Chronicle commented that such a legislation would violate Article 16(1) of the Constitution ??" right to equal opportunity. Given the quota restrictions, what realistic opportunity would Tamil medium students have in government jobs? Also, would this law apply to currently serving and future politicians of the State including the convent educated former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and Dayanidhi Maran among others? Such questions, if asked, were not reported.

The English media published close to 70 news reports on the WCTC and the World Tamil Internet Congress 2010. Barely a seventh of these were focused on the role of Tamil in fostering growth and development in the State. Only The Times of India and The New Indian Express have published editorials on the WCTC

To achieve the developmental goals of education for all, poverty & hunger eradication, infrastructure improvement and gender/ caste/ class equality, it is important to empower people through job creation and equal opportunity. How does the State propose to use Tamil to achieve these goals? Does it plan to have personality development courses to help Tamil medium candidates become confident in facing job interviews? Is there a plan to create jobs that will mainly require Tamil language fluency with little or no emphasis on English? How will such a move work when over 45 per cent of the State's revenue comes from services in the private sector that perform software jobs requiring fluency in English and about 34 per cent comes from manufacturing (mainly exports and inter-state trade) where English is the preferred medium of communication? What steps are being taken to improve computer literacy among Tamil medium literates?

How does the state plan to promote Tamil given the apparent lack of interest in the younger generation? Children's literature from Arunachal Pradesh is being translated into English and adapted for current times. Katha, a children's book publisher that undertakes such work told me it is seeing an increased interest for such books, with children from the North East Indian community expressing interest in learning their native script through bilingual books. Chandamama, among the oldest of children's magazines, allows children to read and re-write their versions of popular native fiction in a language of their choice. Video and mobile game versions of literature are other ways to inspire youngsters to take interest in their native tongues.

These are some pivotal questions and ideas that the media should be raising on such occasions. The amount of scepticism they reserve for private enterprise should be present in covering public enterprises and governance too.

Such conferences should be platforms for launching new ideas, services, products and functional literature that make Tamil more current, relevant and effective in day to day life.

* Comments in this article are restricted to coverage in the English Media