tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19649274.post6873675040592024389..comments2024-03-29T12:03:50.891+05:30Comments on The Leap Blog: Murky ethics on the part of the media, and the firms they coverAjay Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03835842741008200034noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19649274.post-60133195171334134082009-07-18T11:35:49.425+05:302009-07-18T11:35:49.425+05:30Watch Clinton's voice on your channel rather t...Watch Clinton's voice on your channel rather than the real press conference and only on Times Now and CNN. hmmm....<br /><br />Give me a break..Its all a farce and all fixed...India meaning Dr singh has capitulated....esoterichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00834825094547388077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19649274.post-39087276154767135642008-01-26T22:59:00.000+05:302008-01-26T22:59:00.000+05:30Thanks for the kind words. But capital controls, i...Thanks for the kind words. But capital controls, international finance and macroeconomics is my profession! `Private treaties' was an egregious violation of ethics that caught my attention, even though neither media nor ethics are my front burner issues (e.g. I had to invent new labels just for these blog entries).Ajay Shahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03835842741008200034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19649274.post-31523313518968062632008-01-26T22:56:00.000+05:302008-01-26T22:56:00.000+05:30Hi Ajaywonderful blog. It is such causes that you ...Hi Ajay<BR/>wonderful blog. It is such causes that you should take more often rather those like capital controls and mumbai international financial center, which remain unclear issues on several aspects.<BR/>There is a great amount of deterioration in the ethical standards and issues of integrity, particularly driven by institutions considered as icons for preserving and protecting these things. It is these things that hurtle a nation towards severe setbacks the pains of which would be intensely felt by the common man.<BR/>One of the best pieces and most timely ones that I read in the recent times.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19649274.post-16980377554805252452008-01-24T10:55:00.000+05:302008-01-24T10:55:00.000+05:301. What can we do about it?The answer to this is c...1. What can we do about it?<BR/><BR/>The answer to this is competition in the print and other media. If the story does not come in one newspaper, it would come in another paper along with an explanation of why it did not come in the other paper.<BR/> <BR/>This is exactly what happens in political stories. Some newspapers do not carry negative stories about party X and some other newspapers do not carry positive stories about that party. I remember two decades ago, the editor of one newspaper held a press conference about the story that his own newspaper refused to carry and that was front page news in every other newspaper.<BR/><BR/>Fierce defence of freedom of speech and expression is what is needed. Unfortunately, the right of free speech in the Indian constitution is not as strong as in the US constitution and as a nation we seem willing to whittle down even what we have.<BR/><BR/>The saving grace is that with the emergence of the internet and the blogosphere, it is impossible to shut down negative stories about any company, party or person except by building a great firewall like the Chinese are doing.<BR/><BR/>2. What happens elsewhere in the world?<BR/><BR/>My experience is that the global newspapers disclose any financial interest of any kind in any story that they do. For example, if the Economist does a story about the Financial Times, they would disclose their common ownership by Pearson. I have seen stories on Wall Street Journal in another paper disclose the competitive relationship that they or their sister publications may have. Apart from disclosure, bias is rampant. When Murdoch was buying WSJ, the coverage in virtually every newspaper was severely and systematically biased in one direction or the other.<BR/><BR/>Bias in political coverage is even worse than in India even in the financial press. <BR/><BR/>3. How does securities law deal with it?<BR/><BR/>It is necessary to distinguish fraudulent conduct from biased coverage. Any attempt to stop biased coverage will only end up destroying freedom of the press and that would be the end of democracy. This is one respect in which we do not want to emulate East Asia.<BR/><BR/>Fraudulent conduct (publishing deliberately wrong or misleading stories for example) is another matter altogether. I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that any fraudulent or deceptive reporting in any scheme of this kind would be covered by the general anti-fraud provisions of 10b5 in the US and the FUTP regulations in India. After the decision of the US Supreme Court in the Stoneridge case, private law suits against an offending newspaper may be impossible, but the SEC can proceed against them under 10b5 in cases of fraud.<BR/><BR/>The hard part is to prove fraud or deception as opposed to bias. Bias however strong and repulsive it may be would be protected in the US and perhaps even in India. You can prove fraud only if you get hold of incriminating emails or other correspondence. There is no alternative to painstaking investigation.Prof. Jayanth R. Varmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02014534445875022628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19649274.post-87047204825506628882008-01-21T16:28:00.000+05:302008-01-21T16:28:00.000+05:30I have seen this during my rookie days as a securi...I have seen this during my rookie days as a securities analyst. At IPO analyst conerences, journo-s from financial magazines / periodicals come and begin to grill the promoters/ merchant bankers with unpleasant questions. <BR/><BR/>After making the promoters grovel, those journo-s subtly hint that they will favorably review the offering in exchange for a big splash of advertisement(s) in the periodical. This has been happening time immemorial. <BR/><BR/>Shankar<BR/>L&T InfotechAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com