This past week we have witnessed an ersatz public debate, if that’s the right phrase to use since it preoccupied the chattering classes and not the masses, on whether the media should intrude into the personal lives of public figures, especially high profile politicians, in its quest of titillating stories thinly disguised as exposés meant to highlight the moral decrepitude and ethical bankruptcy of our times. The debate, such as it has been, was triggered by a video, surreptitiously or unwittingly recorded, whose contents can neither be written about nor broadcast without inviting charges of contempt of court. What can be said without breaching the law is that the video has sufficiently embarrassed Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi to resign from his post as party spokesman and chairman of the parliamentary committee on law and justice which has drafted the Lok Pal Bill meant to restore integrity in public life.

We need not dwell upon the odious contents of the ‘alleged’ CD containing the video, copies of which were stealthily distributed among journalists and politicians even while a judge was issuing restraining orders. It is remarkable that the media, including those sections which are known to play fast and loose with the fundamental ethics of journalism to either grab eyeballs or push their agenda, refrained from writing about or broadcasting the revolting contents of the ‘alleged’ CD.