How lovely is the ‘yesmaamgiri’ of journalists

Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true, goes an old adage. 

After years of wishing the Indian media would take PR more seriously and give it due recognition, my wish was brutally granted when Niira Radia took PR from the corridors of media houses to the front page of newspapers.

The Radia tapes controversy, as it is known today, pertains to taped telephonic conversations between corporate lobbyist and PR veteran Nirra Radia and senior journalists, politicians and industrialists.

These tapes form an important piece of evidence in the ongoing 2G spectrum scam investigations.

With the leaking of these tapes in the public domain, PR practitioners suddenly graduated from being popularly perceived as experts in the fine art of wining and dining to high fliers with lycra moral fibres who indulged in illegal activities.

Accusations flew, speculations rose, anchors frothed and journalists defended when the PR industry went into a denial mode, barring couple of veterans including Dilip Cherian and Rajiv Desai who remarkably rose to its defence, albeit with little success in the echo chamber.

Even as PR was in the news for all the wrong reasons, it was an opportunity for the industry to turn this spotlight positive. It was an opportunity to raise a collective voice to showcase legitimacy of industry practices, its achievements and put forward cases that not only countered the mounting negative perceptions but also finally gave it direction.

It was also an opportune time to educate audiences on PR; raise questions pertaining to the usage of PR and treatment of agencies by the media and corporates; and finally, inject a fresh dose of discipline by issuing guidelines and adopting codes of conduct that would have helped the industry flourish. Instead, most of us hoped if we shut our eyes long enough, the problem would go away. Moreover, one needed a reputation to begin with in order to protect it, why bother with something non-existent?

There was another important story we didn't get to read. Of the silent awe Radia inspired amidst many in the industry.  The inside joke was that if a journalist was not on the tapes, he simply wasn't important enough. I bet many cups of coffee were had by PR executives in their conference room while listening to the tapes and chuckling at the 'yesmaamgiri' of senior journalists who behaved like divas when they, the lesser mortal PR executives, interacted with them.

It was in a way sweet revenge for many. It was also not without envy many noted the extent of Radia's influence that gave her uninterrupted access to journalists and policy makers a PR executive would give up five-star hotel conference food for.
I have spent 18 years learning and practising PR. I know no other field that could be as challenging, fulfilling, interesting and diverse as this, especially for one working in a PR agency.  Properly carried out, it combines the skill sets of a management consultant, business analyst, journalist and lawyer.  It is unfortunate that while we help others – be it the clients or the media – shine, when it comes to telling the world our own story, we still prefer to remain in the dark.

Surekha Pillai is an independent communications
consultant based in Delhi. You can reach her at
surekhapillai@gmail.com or @surekhapillai on Twitter.