‘We didn’t go over the top’

The terrorists’ attacks in Mumbai was a huge story. The situation was was changing by the hour, and if you look at the overall picture, our television channels did an excellent job. There was round-the-clock, coverage, like September 9/11. Television journalists and cameramen showed enormous courage and commitment. There may have been attempts at sensationalising stories, but such instances of not-so-good journalism happen everywhere. At CNN-IBN, we filtered stories carefully, and showed restraint. We were aware of the gravity of the situation. We didn’t indulge in irresponsible reporting.

Television channels are always criticised for their work, yet everybody wants to come on TV. For TV journalists, there was hardly any respite as long as the tragedy continued. Their commitment deserves respect. It takes a lot to cover a tragedy of this magnitude. You need a lot of resources, and some very dedicated people to give almost a blow-by-blow account of the event. Journalists risked their lives but stayed focused on the job-at-hand. All the television channels tried their best.

Television is the window of India to the outside world. Viewers within India and across the globe could see what was happening at Taj, Oberoi and Nariman House. One of the survivors who came on CNN-IBN said that “while the television channels were on, we felt secure.”

I wouldn’t buy the logic that television coverage compromised security and the rescue operations. Everybody wanted to know how the events were unfolding. It was extremely tense. And, the security forces were dealing with fidayeens. They (fidayeens) wouldn’t time their actions by watching television. That’s a ridiculous thing to even suggest.

Rajdeep Sardesai is Editor-in-chief, IBN network. He spoke to Pratik Ghosh.