'Journey more important than destination'

Wellknown journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has said that in journalism, journey is more important than the destination.

Addressing the students at Manipal School of Communication (SOC) on Wednesday, he said journalism has changed over the last 25 years. “We are in the world of false and not truth. We have moved away from sense towards sensationalism,” he opined.

News is converted into a box office drama. Journalism is not the box office. One cannot write a story based on the calculations that whether it sells or not, he lamented and observed that one should strive to restore credibility and morality. There is a need for honesty and certain element of dignity among journalists. There is absolutely a need of power to realize to have strong ethical code. There is a need to reinvent and rediscover journalism. Journalism is not in true form, he noted.

Self regulation

Stating that there is a necessity to create space for good news, Sardesai said at the same time media should reveal the rot in the society. He said self-regulation is one of those concepts used by journalists to wipe their sins and which operates to next person. Everyday is new day in journalism. Journalists are notoriously cynical. “We are in a paradoxical situation where the quality is declined and quantity is increased”. It is high time to have proper regulations as the one BBC has and it should come from autonomous regulatory body, he stressed.

Reporter in news

He added the major disadvantage is that the story that appears in the media is more of a reporter centred than the people concerned. India no longer faces the deficit with respect to many aspects, however the amount of corruption has increased to larger amount. Earlier, it was Bofors scam with ‘mere’ Rs 64 crores of fraud, but today that amount is a one-day salary to Indian politicians in reality, he said.

Lines are broken today. Mentioning the name of the victim in rape cases is very unacceptable. Social media has crossed all barriers. Who is going to set rules when rules are changing everywhere, Sardesai asked while referring to the media coverage in Manipal rape case incident.

TRAI move stupid

He said there are many misconceptions over Neera Radia tape swindle. One cannot damage the reputation of a person without having proper evidences. Breaking news is a cheapest way of keeping the viewers stick to particular channel. He said corporatisation in media is inevitable at one level and termed Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) notification which mandates broadcasters to restrict the duration of advertisements in their channels to a maximum of 12 minutes in any given clock hour as a terrible and stupid move.