Click to play videoCNN-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.
But now that CNN-IBN has deposed before the Parliament panel it is fair that it broadcast the tapes. 'It was important to avoid it (broadcasting the tapes) earlier because the parliamentary probe would have been pre-empted by the marketplace. Trial by the press, as seen in the Arushi Talwar murder case, has been frowned upon by the Supreme Court," said Varghese.
Should now the police pick up the probe? Sorabjee said not the police but Parliament must finish the probe. 'The airing of the tapes was completely justified because people's right to know could not be further delayed," he said.
Salve argued the media's job is now over and the law must finish the investigation. 'This requires serious investigation into the source of the money, the identity of people. Parliament will investigate but the law of the country must be put into action. The police may defer the Parliament's report but at some point of time the law of the country must take its course or faith in Parliament will never be revived," he said.
Sting operations: right or wrong
The cash-for-votes tapes raise another question for the media: the fairness and validity of sting operations.
Varghese didn't approve of sting operations but agreed that they were in vogue and unavoidable. 'Editors, politicians and jurists must set down rules, because this is not merely a media issue—it involves all," he said.
'There was no entrapment in the CNN-IBN tapes and that makes a difference between other sting operations what you have done," said Sorabjee.
'The Parliamentary panel will show that how politicians can rise above party lines and will come up with a probe report which vindicates that Parliament is the primary institute of governance. Sting operations in a perfect operation would be a disgusting exercise but we live in a very, very imperfect world. They are a necessary evil to deal with the greater evil of rampant corruption," said Salve.
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