Malayalam TV channel Mangalam has earned substantial public ire for its 'expose' of former Transport Minister Saseendran. It's also earned condemnation from within its own stables, with at least one journalist quitting from the channel, raising questions over the ethics of the entire episode.
24-year-old Al Neema Ashraf, a reporter with Mangalam Television resigned from her job on Wednesday and said in a Facebook post that she could no longer work with the organisation that had been unethical in its conduct.
Translation of Al Neema's post.
I was working in Mangalam till yesterday and I quit today. I am writing this Facebook post after handing over my resignation to those concerned. This was a profession I chose because of my passion. I was happy when I was offered a job with a prominent media organisation’s TV channel. But I resigned due to unbearable circumstances, both as a woman and as a journalist. The first news bulletin itself put all the employees there in an insulting position. We expected this to a certain extent, but we never imagined that things would go this low.
I joined Mangalam last May. At that stage, an investigation team consisting of five reporters was formed. I was also instructed to be part of that team. But I informed them that I was not ready to be part of it. I had said no because the profile of the investigating team was something that I did not envisage as part of a journalist’s role.
Though we were told that there would be a big breaking story, we were not told the nature of it. And I got to know about the Saseendran story only after it went on air. It is when I thought about the things that were said during the formation of the investigation team, and the way the Saseendran expose played out that I realised something was fishy here.
I have several questions:
1) Who is the woman who was the complainant?
2) With what complaint did she approach the Transport Minister?
3) Why has her part of the conversation been edited out?
Because of this incident, all women journalists have come under the shadow of suspicion and are being insulted. I am quitting my job because this is not what I have learnt as a journalist.