Tuesday, 12 April 2016

Sting Operation – A boon to audiences

Undoubtedly sting operations are a legitimate weapon for investigative journalists but it is not a new practice. It has been into practice since ages. We all have heard a lot of stories during our childhood from our grandparents, about kings who would dress up like a labour and would roam around to learn what the people have to say about them or their kingdom. Wasn't that a sting operation as well- hiding the identity and using false identity to attain first hand information?

Contemporary sting operations may be termed as technical advancements of this ages old practice of truth finding. Sting operation catches a person live on camera committing a crime or talking about it; the tapes tell the story. However, the questions arise after this. How many of those who were caught on camera could be punished in the court of law? Does the court accept these sting operations as major evidence in the case? How can a journalist prove that he did not plot the sting operation? Is it acceptable to violate certain legal or social norms in order to attain some video footage? No personal or professional interests or enmity exists behind the operation; and the most important- How will the "public interest" clause will be justified? Probably, it is the last question which leads to most of the debates. For me proven public interest and effective end results are most important. Sting operations must lead to legal action and punishments. If it fails to achieve this, it remains simply as a TRP booster for a few weeks and nothing beyond it.

All sting operations are about organized people in law enforcement and their civilian operatives which usually consists of people that are either friends or are in some way related to the law enforcement for the purpose of entrapping or framing. Sting operatives are paid, trained liars and are immune to prosecution because government allows and permits police to keep their sting operations covert and therefore they are not required in courts to admit to such operations and because of this any and all complaints on sting operations tend to get ignored and suppressed and stonewalled and victims of sting operations have no recourse at law for remedy should they become victim of a sting operation!

Thus, because of this organized corruption running rampant within our system most people know little or nothing about sting operations and that is by design because the system does not WANT people to know or understand in detail what a sting operation is or what they do or what they are about!

PRIYA DEY
( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)




No comments:

Post a Comment