Lokpal Bill is not the solution to end corruption, says Mark Tully

Mark Tully, noted mediaperson, criticised  the Indian media while addressing students at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication (SIMC) on Friday.

One of the most deplorable acts a journalist can possibly do is to publish paid news, he said.  “ Western media is not perfect. Sometimes, people take bribes. But I haven’t seen something like this with the Western countries,” he said.

“When people in India say that television has killed radio, I get very upset. I think radio as a medium has been exploited well. I belong to the age of radio,” he said.

“There is a sense of intimacy created by the radio broadcaster if he is a good one and AIR is fascicle broadcasting that does not use radio’s power to communicate,” he said adding that private radio channels in the country should be given the permission to broadcast news.

Television journalists did not escape Tully’s critique.
 “What we put on air should be backed with good writing. These days, new presenters have conversations with other journalists on the phone. It is their duty to put together a properly thought out script. But instead all you get is theatrics,” he said adding that he did not appreciate the press over-reacting to create drama.

Tully also spoke about the importance of maintaining a healthy relation with press relations officers.  “Journalists believe that people in PR are always lying. That is not true. I had a great relationship with Major Siddiq Salik, the press relations officer of General Zia-ul-Haq. I got a tip the day Bhutto was to be hanged and was planning on airing the news and Siddiq Salik called and denied the news but I asked him to go on record as the press relations officer of Zia. He did not do that either. Our relation did not suffer from this. We both had our jobs to do,” he recalled.