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Importance of being ethical

Tarun Tejpal's take on sting operations and ethical journalism

PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT

ETHICALLY YOURS Tarun Tejpal.

Tejpal, we all know, has seen a long spell of turbulent times. CBI raided his office, a series of court cases are against him and a national government was once opposed to him. Allegedly, his life was on the line too.

From life, Tejpal says he has learnt "stuff happens... cards are dealt out to you randomly and you deal with it as honourably as you can."

During the course of the conversation moves from the oratorical to the chatty. He clearly knows how to convince his listeners about his passions.

Admired and reviled

A pioneer of sting journalism, both admired and reviled for his means, he says, "ethics is not a static game." He agrees to be ethical is to be self-reflective but to him ethics in journalism is, "fairly complex and has to be squared off against legal, bureaucratic and social conduct."

In the six years since he introduced sting journalism to India through the portal tehelka.com and now through his weekly, Tehelka, he feels that his experiences have made him reflect on what should and should not be done. In India, he finds that most sting-journalism are "mock-ups".

"The situations are simulated and because of this the possibility of misuse is very great."

The flak he received from certain media and political quarters, after Operation West End, has cautioned him. He warns of the use of money in sting operations.

Today, Tehelka tries to conduct all its stings without money. Tejpal says he and his editorial team decide on "how much deception is to be used on a story-to-story basis."

Allowing an occasional glimpse of a greying ponytail, he asserts, "The heart of journalism has to be public interest". Sting operations, he believes, serve public interest but they can, however, be easily misused for voyeuristic and titillating reasons. A commitment to public interest should create a "Mediasaur, a creature with teeth big enough to bite and with legs large enough to stand".

Tejpal emphatically says, "Never ever should the right to regulate media be given to those in power." He agrees, "truth is relative, but truth is truth." He concedes that in journalism, "of course, there is fallibility but you have to do everything with humility and integrity."

He says in the 80's, journalism was not about "glamour or money", as it is today. His colleagues would say, "One day we will earn Rs.5, 000, what will we do with that?"

Alchemy of writing

He says he is a "literary animal by self-training", and describes writing "Alchemy of Desire". In 2002 when life was hardship, "the tone of the book came with great clarity" and after that, he says, "the book sang in my head." He says the tone, "allowed me to tell an intimate story without forgetting the bigger issues." He wanted to, "capture the teeming quality of India and to capture that without caricaturing it." "The only test of a book is time". He hopes his book will pass the test.

Tejpal talks of his dear friend O.V. Vijayan. One of the things he admired about O.V., Tejpal says was for his belief, "books refine us."

NANDINI NAIR

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