The coverage can be divided into two broad phases: the first one, lasting until Thursday morning, was largely one of breathless ground reporting with the channels seemingly ahead of the local police forces as they tried to make sense of multiple terror eruptions igniting almost simultaneously all over India’s commercial capital. With the ordinary policeman on the street as clueless initially as the reporter on the ground, this was the aggressive face of television news at its best, breaking boundaries and trying to make sense of it all. There were no New York-type yellow tapes here, no surgical sealing of the crime spots — journalists as much in the frontline as anyone else in an unending cornucopia of fast-moving tragedy. The long and weary night vigil gave way to a morning of steely resolve, edginess and enforced caution, with the state’s security apparatus weighing in, demarcating boundaries and assuming a semblance of control over the drip-drop of information.

It is clear that the most important front in the battle for the public mind will be fought on the airwaves. The terrorists clearly know this and understand this as a media event that they are drawing out for maximum exposure. As such, it seems that the ground rules of engagement need to change: between government and media and between media and the public. With terror now a virtually permanent feature of Indian public life, there is a greater need for training and sensitisation of reporters — and not just those working directly on security-related beats — on these issues. India could also do without the ungainly spectacle of reporters fighting over separate exclusive interviews with escaped hostages.

... contd.