Citing the petition of the three BJP MPs before the Speaker, Advani said, “They have also affirmed that CNN-IBN agreed to work with them in investigating the matter and sent a team that actually recorded almost the entire trail of the bribery operation.”

“The details of the joint operation by them and the CNN-IBN team is attested by the three MPs in their petition to you,” he said. “In any such investigation by a media organisation, the investigated material does not become a property of the investigator. It is held in trust for the public of India — its contents must be shared both with the people at large as well as with the whistle-blowers (in this case the three MPs), without whose permission and co-operation the channel could not have conducted the investigation,” said Advani.

“The channel had assured the whistle-blowers that the recorded tape would be telecast soon. However, this was not done. In any democracy, it would be the grossest impropriety if the whistle-blowers are let down by the media organisation that conducted the investigation. It is unfortunate that the TV channel is now treating the investigated material as its private property and has chosen to impose a mysterious self-censorship on itself,” Advani added.

Having said this, Advani raised doubts about the authenticity of the tape submitted to the Lok Sabha secretariat. He said “soon after” the three BJP MPs had displayed the wads of current notes in the House, “the channel had announced that it was in the possession of the tape and had handed it over to the Speaker”.