televista
Paparazzi at it again
Amita Malik

Bipasha Basu’s recent picture with soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo created a stir

I have been watching with increasing dismay last week the interest, at times verging on malice, with which the electronic media has been pursuing the alleged rift between

Bipasha Basu and John Abraham. Their relationship has been pretty open and even admired down the years. It has certainly provided good copy to both print and electronic media. Everything seemed fine up to the time both went to the Cannes Film Festival. What made matters flare up were two things. Bipasha went to Portugal for the announcement of the seven wonders of the world.

Somewhere along the way, or immediately after, she made a statement: "Now I am single again". Then followed the alleged kiss with Ronaldo, the young and handsome Brazilian soccer star who was also in Portugal for the same event. Ben Kingsley was also there and also paid Bipasha the attention due to a pretty and intelligent woman, but no one bothered because he was a much older person. The climax came early this week when another actress, I think Ms Sherawat, was substituted for Bipasha in a brand advertisement in which John and Bipasha had appeared together for some time. That drove the media what I can crudely describe as nuts.

Now one must concede that private lives of public figures is a legitimate copy for all the media, but to a point. Even when the people concerned feed the media with titbits, there should be a limit which should be observed.

And when what is believed to be a climax is reached, facts should be carefully checked and the news value of the gossip weighed against important national and international news.

I found TV channels wanting in both. One English news channel virtually devoted its entire afternoon and evening bulletins to the kiss. Only one channel carried interviews with her colleagues, of whom no less than 10 of them were present during the kiss.

Two of them declared on one channel that there was nothing like a lip-lock and that if one looked carefully at the photo, it could be seen for what is was: Ronaldo was whispering something into Bipasha’s ear. Unfortunately, and perhaps deliberately, this clarification, with 10 people vouching for it, was carried by only one channel and only once. And the fact that John Abraham was understandably not willing to talk to the press and media was taken as proof of the break-up. He was chased mercilessly and it seems none was able to contact Bipasha.

What I object to is not so much the chase of the story or the suppression of contradictory facts as the apparent glee with which the media reported the alleged break-up. All break-ups of long and hitherto happy relationships are sad and surely not to be gloated over. This goes beyond the borders of decency. If celebrities are to a large extent to blame for airing their private lives to further their professional careers, the media is equally to blame for exploiting what should be a purely private matter to send up their rating. Both need to look at themselves because things always reach a stage when even the gossip-loving public gets fed up.

However, in another much more important sphere, the electronic media has been behaving with high responsibility. This is in the case of Dr Haneef and the way his case is being handled by the Australian Government.

The reporting has been factual. Also, shots of human rights activists protesting in Australia by Australians themselves has done a lot to redeem the belated reactions of the Indian Government. This is good professional reporting and one hopes the Australian High Commission is taking note of Indian public sentiment, which seems much more balanced than the rigid official Australian reaction.