Two meetings on the same day. Slightly different wardrobe.
Wednesday 24 September, 2008
Sunday 13 July, 2008
A man's reputation
That the reputation of Dr. Rajesh Talwar has taken a beating from the Noida police is beyond question. But the treatment of this story by the media has also left much to be desired. The demonification of the 'father who killed his daughter' in the press and television raises questions as to whether there can be redress to such treatment by the press. So have the media defamed Dr. Talwar? In civil law, defamation is a tort which includes both slander and libel. Slander is spoken or transient defamation while libel is defamation that has been recorded in a more permanent form.
To successfully defend against libel, the press has to fulfill two requirements. Not only must the press prove its claims to be true, it must also prove their publication to have been in the public interest.
In this case, newspapers and television news channels have put out shows and stories making outlandish claims dreamed up by overactive imaginations sitting in the newsrooms trying to figure out ways as to how best to feed the monster of voyeurism next. The common element in many of these newspaper and television stories was they simply had no basis in truth.
Generally speaking the news media runs on speculation. But that speculation has a rule, especially in a newspaper. News should be true, true enough, as long as it is true enough until tomorrow. Generally speaking, even speculative stories require a foundation of fact to be legitimately speculating about the truth. There are people in television news channels who have repeatedly done entire shows on complete fabrications on the elements of this case.
The news media in recent years started taking an active interest in criminal cases, recognising how they get ratings and feed polls, especially when the victim is a member of that elite grouping PLU*. So Jessica Lal's murder case, Nitish Katara's murder case collectively became a cause celebre. The news media aggressively pursued these cases seeing that it sold, both in terms of ratings and those premium-rated SMS polls. And of course yes, to try and get justice for the poor PLU victims. In the process, reporters and editors got the misconception they were crusaders pursuing the ends of justice. Their sanctimonious self-righteousness was no longer in doubt.
And so they treated the murder of Arushi. Invading privacy, using innuendo, using the girl's text and scrap messages to portray her as possibly a maneater and flushing the reputation of a man down the toilet. Dr. Talwar's real action for libel lies against the media.
* People Like Us
To successfully defend against libel, the press has to fulfill two requirements. Not only must the press prove its claims to be true, it must also prove their publication to have been in the public interest.
In this case, newspapers and television news channels have put out shows and stories making outlandish claims dreamed up by overactive imaginations sitting in the newsrooms trying to figure out ways as to how best to feed the monster of voyeurism next. The common element in many of these newspaper and television stories was they simply had no basis in truth.
Generally speaking the news media runs on speculation. But that speculation has a rule, especially in a newspaper. News should be true, true enough, as long as it is true enough until tomorrow. Generally speaking, even speculative stories require a foundation of fact to be legitimately speculating about the truth. There are people in television news channels who have repeatedly done entire shows on complete fabrications on the elements of this case.
The news media in recent years started taking an active interest in criminal cases, recognising how they get ratings and feed polls, especially when the victim is a member of that elite grouping PLU*. So Jessica Lal's murder case, Nitish Katara's murder case collectively became a cause celebre. The news media aggressively pursued these cases seeing that it sold, both in terms of ratings and those premium-rated SMS polls. And of course yes, to try and get justice for the poor PLU victims. In the process, reporters and editors got the misconception they were crusaders pursuing the ends of justice. Their sanctimonious self-righteousness was no longer in doubt.
And so they treated the murder of Arushi. Invading privacy, using innuendo, using the girl's text and scrap messages to portray her as possibly a maneater and flushing the reputation of a man down the toilet. Dr. Talwar's real action for libel lies against the media.
* People Like Us
Thursday 12 June, 2008
Thursday 22 May, 2008
Nepal, the International Criminal Court and the Gorkha Rifle Regiments
Thursday, the 22nd of May, 2008, Metro Now
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