Between media and state

There are two worldviews governing the relationship between an editor and the state. One firmly believes in a model wherein the editor considers himself the natural opposition to the governing regime, while the other sees the role of an editor as part of a nation-building agenda. The latter   does not consider spaces of mutual cooperation and even collaboration a breach of journalistic ethics.  While both approaches have advantages as well as disadvantages, postcolonial Indian journalism did gain substantially from both forms.

B G Verghese, one of India's seniormost journalists, clearly belongs to the second school of thought. What makes him stand out from the pack, however, is his finely tuned ability to distinguish  right from wrong: he is able to define  the line between engagement with the state to further the public interest, as opposed to lobbying for narrow personal or business interest. Over the years, Verghese served as bureau chief for the Times of India's powerful Delhi bureau, and later as editor of the Hindustan Times (1969-75) and the Indian Express (1982-86). His memoirs, spanning the entire gamut of independent India's media, are a gentle reminder of the ways in which a journalist can, ethically and morally, work in tandem with the state apparatus. First Draft shows us that such association with the powers-that-be is vastly different from that of the New Delhi journalists who have been disgraced by the Radiagate Tapes.