JOURNALISM AND PROSTITUTION: One day, just after a press conference I told a member of my fraternity that there’s a thin line dividing journalism and prostitution. He was working in one of the wire agencies and he was flabbergasted at my statement. He thought I was mad to say something so demeaning. I do not want to talk about journalists covering politics, sports and other such subjects. I want to talk about journalists covering automobiles. I became a full-fledged automobile journalist when I left the Pioneer newspaper and went on to get a job in Auto India, before heading the team in Auotcar India Delhi office in 1999. A year back I started my own company Motown Publications Pvt Ltd and started my magazines Motown India and Car N Style.
So what’s the prostitute angle to journalism? Let me explain the prostitute bit first. A prostitute takes money for the pleasure she or he gives to the client. The client in turn pays the prostitute money for the gratification. At the end of it all, the prostitute is “used” for the money he or she receives. Now let’s come to journalism. We journalists are paid a salary for our jobs. We are paid enough salaries so that we can live a decent salary. Some are paid less, some more, depending on the organisation, the post and the clout one wields. But over and above this salary, journalists are also given the extra bit that leaves them “used”. Let me start giving my readers a few examples. Journalists (read auto journalists) are invited to launches of vehicles, test drives and auto shows all over the world. The invitation boldly states that the conference would be followed by “lunch” or “dinner”. So far so good. But after the lunch or dinner, I have often seen journalists making a beeline for the counter where goodies are handed out. Now is there a need for this? Not at all! Why do auto companies, whether they are OEMs or component manufacturers, dole out gifts? Is this a birthday party where return gifts are a fad? Mind you, the gifts are not cheap; it ranges from expensive notebooks, to ipods, to digital clocks and so on. Once I did accept a gift and I felt so “used”, just like a whore on the street. You agree? I am a writer, I get my salary on time, I love reading books, I love my writing.... so where is this need to give me a gift at the end of a press conference?
Journalists are invited to car launches and shows held abroad and outside their own cities. The big newspapers merely write at the end of the correspondent’s report, ‘This correspondent was invited by XYZ company to abc place’. Maybe it’s fair in a way, because neither newspapers, nor big television channels or magazines have the heart to sponsor their correspondents for auto shows and launches outside their city. But what about the gifts they receive? Should that be banned?
I have asked correspondents in my company to refrain from accepting a gift at a press conference. For the young ones, it’s an extremely difficult proposition. So used are they to accepting gifts, even though I tell them that there’s a thin line dividing journalism and prostitution. One of them even comes to me and tells me that he wants to keep the gift and present it to his mother, while the other one wants to give it to his uncle. But don’t they realise that they are not supposed to accept the gifts in the first place? Don’t they feel used? Like a whore on the street?
When new cars are launched, I have often asked car companies to give us their new cars so that we can briefly drive it and give our driving impressions in our publication. Ideally a car is good enough for two or three days wherein one can drive it and also photograph it in detail. Since ours is a relatively new publication we get the cars much after its launch, sometimes months after it is launched. Journalists from leading television channels and newspapers keep the cars for weeks and months. They flaunt it like they own it. They take their girls or boys out on a date in it. They keep it for as long as they want. Car companies send their drivers to deliver the vehicle at their doorstep and once they are finished, they get it picked up. Don’t they feel “used”? I have noticed that as more and more car majors are coming to India and setting up base, we journalists are getting “used” more and more. The ones in big newspapers and television channels get “used” more, while a few of us get “used” less.
It’s very important that journalists, especially my kind who write about cars and all kinds of four-wheelers, stop accepting gifts and freebies. It’s all the more important for big companies to stop doling out expensive gifts to journalists. Or else we shall feel “used”. Not to forget that there’s a thin line dividing journalism and prostitution!
