Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not shooting the messenger. He is cautioning it to send virus-free messages. It would be easy to dismiss his criticism of “hit and run” reportage of the Indian stock markets as a case of shooting the messenger. Yet that would evade the harder questions raised by a man not usually given to harsh words. In the past week, business newspapers ran reports of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) directing intelligence officials to investigate Dalal Street’s bull run. While the PMO quickly clarified no such orders had been issued, the damage was done. The Sensex, now at record, 8,000 plus levels, was rattled. For a few crucial hours panic set in, prices fell — and some people made a lot of money.
Was this bear cartel also the inspiration for the media reports? By design or otherwise, did some journalists allow themselves to be used by those who sought to talk down the market? If nothing else, the itch to rush to print — or do a piece-to-camera — without verifying facts reflects poorly on their professionalism. This was the precise point the prime minister was making on Friday. It would be churlish not to recognise it.
In the past decade, as the Indian economy has grown so has the news space devoted to it. While an overwhelming majority of the business media is strictly above board, the presence of a few bad apples cannot be denied. Their propensity to “Sen-sex up the news”, to push up or push down individual stocks, to write speculative stories of how cash-rich business barons are looking to buy certain companies — reports that are conveniently denied two trading days later — is a clear and present danger. Whether it is tendentious “analyses” in print or off-the-cuff “tips” on television — which has the ability to influence stock prices in real time — a degree of rigour and media self-governance is required. Having said that, as the prime minister knows better than most others, the key to a continually-rising stock market lies beyond best practices journalism. It depends on sustained economic reforms.
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