November , 2006
In the Name of Ram
It is perhaps symptomatic of the times we live in that a 20 second noisy soundbite will echo far more than a 1200-word reasoned argument. Which is why a Ram Jethmalani exploding on CNN-IBN while defending his right to represent the prime accused in the Jessica Lal case appears to have set off such an avalanche of comment in the blogosphere. Unfortunately, much of the debate has caught the wrong end of the stick. Jethmalani is perfectly justified in reiterating the constitutional right of the accused to have the best possible defence. The moral compass of an individual must remain his own, and if the learned criminal lawyer refuses to see the distinction between legality and morality, then that is an issue best left to his own judgement. However, it is not Ram Jethmalani reasserting his penchant for self-publicity that is troubling (an octogenarian....




More about Rajdeep Sardesai
Rajdeep Sardesai is the Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 Network, that includes CNN-IBN, IBN 7 and IBN Lokmat. He comes with 22 years of journalistic experience during which he has covered some of the biggest stories in India and the world. Prior to setting up the IBN network, he was the Managing Editor of both NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India and was responsible for overseeing the news policy for both the channels. He has also worked with The Times of India for six years and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition at the age of 26. During the last 22 years, he has covered major national and international stories, specialising in national politics. He has won numerous other awards for journalistic excellence, including the prestigious Padma Shri for journalism in 2008, the International Broadcasters Award for coverage of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for 2007. He has won the Asian Television Award for best talk show for the Big Fight on two occasions and his current flagship show on CNN-IBN, India at 9, has been awarded the best news show at the Asian awards for the last two years. He has been News Anchor of the year at the Indian Television Academy for seven of the last eight years and won more than 50 awards in this period. He has also been the President of the Editors Guild of India, the only television journalist to hold the post and was chosen a Global leader for tomorrow by the world economic forum in 2000. An alumni of St Xavier's College, Mumbai, he has done his Masters and LLB from Oxford University and has also played first class cricket for the Oxford University team. He has contributed to several books and writes a fortnightly column that appears in seven newspapers.



Recent Posts
Archives

























displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.