There have been cases when journalists have crossed the fence of public trust and taken part or perpetrated a crime.
Journalists are considered to be the crusaders of truth. Their pen is considered to be a weapon which saves democracy. They are the third pillar of this democracy who keep the government in check from time to time.
But in certain cases the journalists have crossed the fence of public trust and taken part or perpetrated a crime.
One such name is of Burkha Dutt of NDTV who shot to fame for her war reporting during Kargil times. Dutt was quite happy with her famous show “we the people’ on NDTV till her name appeared in the 2G spectrum scam. Dutt along with another famous journalist – Vir Sanghvi – was accused of being in touch with accused Nira Radia. In the famous Radia Tapes, both appeared frequently and were heard promising Radia help for her cause of getting A Raja the telecom portfolio again in the UPA 2 government by talking to their Congress contacts.
Another name is of two senior journalists of Zee news channel who were arrested Nov 28, 2012 by Delhi police. Sudhir Chaudhary, the head of Zee News, and Samir Ahluwalia, head of Zee Business, were arrested on charges of trying to extort Rs 100 crore from Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s group for not doing news reports on coal scam linking his firm. A tape by Jindal’s group was made available to prove the claim.
The recent in line is Tarun J Tejpal who is editor-in-chief of Tehelka. He is accused of sexually harassing a collegue twice during the ‘Think Fest’ organised by the magazine in Goa this year. He has stepped down from his job ‘for six months’ to do ‘penance’.
