Nonstop Coverage of Mumbai Attacks Prompts Criticism
Dec 8th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsCritics say Indian TV exploited tragedy for ratings, as well as gave away tactical information during gun battles
NEW DELHI
In the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, critics are accusing the media of ethical indiscretions that they claim aggravated the crisis.
According to a report from the Agence France-Presse, the dozens of television channels in one of the world’s most TV-rich markets are being criticized for nonstop broadcasts that some say peddled rumor in the quest for ratings.
Some claimed the nonstop coverage encouraged publicity-seeking terrorists, according to a report from the entertainment trade journal Variety. A police spokesman maintained that the terrorists, who were fighting floor-by-floor battles with law enforcement, gained tactical information from the live coverage, watching hotel TVs to learn both how their coconspirators were faring as well as what police were doing.
Barkha Dutt, an editor at NDTV, New Delhi’s largest television production facility, took issue with those charges in a response posted on NDTV’s website. Among other items in his lengthy rebuttal: ” Please do note that at all times, the media respected the security cordon — a cordon that was determined by the police and officials on site — and NOT by the media. If, as is now being suggested, the assessment is that the media was allowed too close to the operations, here is what we say: we would have been happy to stand at a distance much further away from the encounter sites, had anyone, anyone at all, asked us to move. In the 72 hours that we stood on reporting duty, not once were we asked to move further away. We often delayed live telecasting of images that we thought were sensitive so as to not compromise the ongoing operation. Not once, were we asked by anyone in authority, to switch our cameras off, or withhold images. When we did so, it was entirely our own assessment that perhaps it was safest to do so.”
Others took the opposite tack, criticizing TV stations for being too slow and tentative, with some bloggers and so-called citizen journalists taking matters into their own hands and posting updates via social-networking services such as Twitter and Flickr.
Associated Press writer Sam Dolnick reports: “The lightning-quick updates of the attacks that killed 174 people read like a sketchy but urgent blow-by-blow account of the siege, providing further evidence of a sea change in how people gather their information in an increasingly Internet-savvy world.”
Sources: NDTV, Dec. 4 — AFP, Dec. 3 — AP, Nov. 30 — Variety, Nov. 30.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Nov. 24 — Related Newsline Commentary, Nov. 24 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 24 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 17 — Related Newsline Commentary, Oct. 6.
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