New Delhi: Fact and fiction have dangerously blurred in the sensational murder of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar with lurid speculation and slander feeding media frenzy, raising serious questions about professional ethics and media responsibilities.
S. Nihal Singh, a veteran journalist and former editor of The Statesman, is "aghast" at the way the story has been covered by the media, which has brought "the profession into disrepute".
'Scandalous'
"It's absolutely scandalous the way the story has been covered. They have thrown all professional norms to the wind. Most of the reportage has been done on the basis of police versions," Singh said.
He was scathing about the "media trial" based on circumstantial evidence and insinuations that bordered on the voyeuristic and the bizarre like the father having an extra-marital affair with a colleague and dark hints of wife swapping.
Nihal Singh, who sees the media coverage of the Aarushi story as part of the larger trend of news becoming entertainment in a market-driven media, said he plans to take this up with professional media bodies like the Editorial Guild. "News has become entertainment. The 24x7 channels have made it worse," he said.
One of the popular hypotheses that has been relayed on news channels ad infinitum and dutifully published in newspapers is that Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar allegedly killed her in a fit of rage after finding her in "objectionable, but not a compromising position" with domestic help Hemraj.
In other words, it was a rage killing or honour killing - seductive phrases that became buzzwords in leading news networks - but not many have bothered to find out where this story originated from, said Akhila Sivadas, who heads a media advocacy group.
This was the version given by the police who did not think it necessary to do a thorough search of the house of the Talwars, located in Sector 25 of Noida, on the morning of May 16 after the murder of Aarushi in the night.
No effort was made by the police to photograph the site of the murder and no effort was made to fingerprint objects in the immediate vicinity that could have given some clues to the identity of the killer or the motive behind the murder.
There is no mention of any confessional statement given by Talwar that would buttress this theory. Yet virtually all TV news channels and dailies have gone to town to cater to "people's thirst for voyeurism and sensationalism", Sivadas said.
Twin murder: Couple found dead
An elderly couple were found murdered in their south Delhi home on Monday and the prime suspect, their domestic help, was missing, police said.
Ashok Goel and his wife Lata were found in a pool of blood in their Neeti Bagh residence.
Ashok was a retired official of the five-star Taj Mahal Hotel of the capital. "We found the Goel couple dead in their house. Their throats were slit," H.G.S. Dhaliwal, the deputy commissioner of police (south Delhi), told reporters.
He said the house had been ransacked and domestic help Mukesh Yadav was missing.
