India's media blasted for sensational Mumbai coverage

The relatively young medium of 24-hour television news received the lion's share of criticism. "There are people on television channels who are not even familiar with the basics of coverage," says Pankaj Vohra, political editor of the Hindustan Times in New Delhi. "I think it needs to evolve itself and it will become mature as time passes."

The most maligned journalist has been Barkha Dutt, the young news talk-show host of New Delhi television. The Facebook group, "Barkha Dutt for worst journalist in the world," has attracted nearly 1,500 members since its creation following the attacks. The site accuses her of being melodramatic, arrogant, and insensitive to relatives of victims.

Ms. Dutt and other television journalists have also been criticized for focusing on the sieges at the Taj and Oberoi hotels – domains of the country's wealthy and ruling elite – while largely ignoring the train station that was littered with the bodies of migrant workers. Fifty-eight people were gunned down there.

Dutt says she finds much of the criticism to be "incorrect and mean-spirited," but concedes that there is a lesson to be learned. "If there is even a shadow of doubt of security being compromised, the industry should be willing to delay-telecast so that we can once and for all end this argument," she says.

Regulating the industry could be a joint effort between the media and government, according to critics who say the government should also share some of the fault for the sensational coverage: Journalists did not have access to secure sites and very little official information was offered.

"A media crackdown is not the answer – self-regulated media is at the core of Indian democracy," says Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of Times Now television channel. "This incident should highlight the need for government and media to work together."

The media has criticized both local and federal government for failing to set up fixed police lines around hostage sites and for not providing regular press briefings.

"The [media] beast has got to be constantly fed. The information flow from government sources was terrible," said Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of the CNN-IBN news channel.

Around Nariman House, the center for Jewish life located in a neighborhood of small, labyrinthine streets, a member of India's elite antiterrorism squad brandishing a pistol chased a dozen reporters from the roof of a building opposite the siege, from where they had been perched for 36 hours. The journalists then ran across a narrow alley into an adjacent building to angle for a better position.

"In most places the police need to be trained at crowd management. Nobody expected this kind of attack, this magnitude of the attack," says Mr. Vohra of the Hindustan Times newspaper.

India's media played a prominent role in its independence movement, and for years journalism held a respected position in society.

"It's fine to say that the media overreacted and that it has become jingoistic and nationalistic. The question is why has it become like that," says Ajit Sahi, an editor at Tehelka magazine, India's leading investigative weekly. He argues that the profit motive of the corporate media houses has forced journalists out of unions by offering them twice or three times what they previously earned, though their employment is now governed by contracts that can be terminated at any time. The problem, argues Mr. Sahi, is that the current model guarantees journalists no protection, even if they object to a story being manipulated or sensationalized.

That's the accusation levied by one of India's most famous film directors, Mahesh Bhatt, against CNN-IBN's Mr. Sardesai, one of India's most prominent TV anchors. Bhatt went a step further and charged that Sardesai and his channel encroached on Bhatt's turf – fiction – after the channel played Bollywood theme songs from movies about wars between India and Pakistan during news updates.

"It's what we do in the movies – whipping up passion – and what was at stake, but a nuclear holocaust?" argues Bhatt, referring to the nuclear weapons capabilities of both South Asian countries. "You use the same tools – you keep the audience on a continuous high."

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