Sunday, January 07, 2007

Intelligence advisory & Mumbai police & TIMES NOW

A few days back TIMES NOW was running a story about an intelligence advisory that Mumbai police has received, saying about 500 to 600 militants have entered the city.

Their correspondent looked over enthusiastic (& over confident) as he had somehow got hold of the official paper. But the way the entire story was being aired, I felt ashamed that I was a witness to that piece or work running on TV. The entire team looked very very arrogant the way they presented the work. It was being sensationalised beyond the scope. Mumbai police seemed very correct in their reaction in playing down the threat not to instill fear in ordinary Mumbai citizen's minds. TIMES NOW in fact interviewed a former police officer & he rightly pointed out that the police would have reacted to the advisory & all the details of the operation cannot be made public. But the presenters were continuously insisting that the Mumbai police should accept that they have not reacted to the advisory & it is their fault + TIMES NOW (& the correspondent) should be awarded for doing police work. The presenters were repeatedly saying that the advisory affects the normal Mumbaikar & the details should be made public. It looked a public stunt + to get attention by over sensationalising the issue. The story completely lacked any seance of responsibility towards the contents.