Truth that stings: Cash-for-vote tapes now in the open

TRUTH IS OUT: CNN-IBN on Monday aired the tapes of its cash-for-votes sting.

        

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CNN-IBN on Monday appeared before a Parliament panel set up to investigate allegations made by three BJP MPs that they were offered bribes to help the UPA Government in the July 22 trust vote in Parliament.

The channel then broadcast what its tapes on the cash-for-votes sting operation contained. For three weeks, politicians have traded charges over the MPs' allegations and demanded that the channel broadcast the tapes immediately. CNN-IBN thought it fit not to be drawn into the political battle and waited to tell the truth about the tapes after making its submissions before the Parliament panel.

Was the channel's decision correct? Should politicians be making demands from journalists? Are sting operations justified? CNN-IBN's Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai asked this to lawyers and jurists Harish Salve, Soli Sorabjee, Fali S Nariman and senior journalist B G Verghese.

Salve, in July, had advised CNN-IBN against telecasting the tapes and he explained his decision. 'The tapes had two competing public interests to deal with. One is the importance of people to know and see what you recorded. There is in my view a more important interest: restoring the credibility of Parliament," he said.

Telecasting the tapes 'prematurely" may have impaired the investigation being conducted by the Parliament panel. 'CNN-IBN has done a sensible thing by waiting for a while and telecasting it now that a bit of time has elapsed."

Salve said there were now two steps forward: the three BJP MPs could file a complaint with the police and the Parliament panel must investigate and do whatever it can to restore faith in the legislature.

Nariman said there were 'good points" in CNN-IBN's tapes but they should have been made public immediately. 'This particular episode could have been released immediately and if it was not released immediately on legal advice then I believe it should have awaited the results of the (Parliament) committee's investigation," he said.

'I think the programme would have much more credibility if you had excluded a very senior member of the BJP, Arun Jaitley, who served to fill up the links in the evidence which was not supplied."

Do journalists have the right to keep the public waiting for a story if they don't have all the facts or evidence? 'I think CNN-IBN was right in withholding the tapes because its investigation was incomplete. The three MPs jumped the gun and entered Parliament and displayed cash there in a clear effort to disrupt the proceedings," said Varghese.

The matter became 'privileged" when the Speaker announced a panel would investigate the MPs' allegations and when Parliament does that it is incumbent upon the media to defer to its judgment, he said.