Way towards sound journalism

Recently I had an opportunity to share Reuter’s guidelines on sourcing with my journalism professor Kiran Thakur. He put those guidelines along with a small comment of mine on his blog.

That post later led to a small debate with participation from senior journalist Mahesh Vijapurkar. Vijapurkar insisted on clarity and responsibility while writing news. I pointed out some good practices being adopted by newspapers, especially mint.

Now, this latest post by mint editor Raju Narisetti tells us how ET too has decided to stick to “fundamentals of sound journalism”.

I have a mix reaction though, and a couple of questions:

1. Whether it is possible for mainstream media to hold on to such practices (formal or written reply from concerned parties before releasing the story), especially when everybody in India do not have access to email and fax ?.

2. As we see ET editor Rahul Joshi emphasizing on: “give at least 24 hours to a company to respond”, another question pops up: If mainstream newspapers too follow this, arn't they denying readers their right to know and to know at the earliest ?.

I am not really sure which way to go.