Octogenarian journalist Mark Tully, lamented the sensationalism of TV news, “India has a terrible history of going through traumas and then everything goes on as if nothing happened.
I think it is so unfair that you have media trials and very often the person is found not guilty, but we never hear about that at all. I often move away from the news bulletins as you see the same sort of standard coverage presented as tonight’s ‘big story’ with no background, nothing about why it is happening.”
Tully further said that it is appalling and sad that the colonial legacy of a “governing police force” rather than a “serving police force” is still operational in India.
In an hourlong Tete-a-Tea session organized by Prabha Khaitan Foundation of Kolkata, Sir William Mark Tully - the voice and face of BBC in South Asia for three decades – reminisced about his childhood in Calcutta where he was born.
He shared his views on making curries, his love for the radio and the railways. Sir Tully also touched upon a range of topics germane to the current state of affairs in India. Conversationalist, Lady Mohini Kent Noon, connected from London to engage Mark Tully to respond to some of the pressing issues pertaining to journalism, media trials, policing in India, colonial legacies and the plight of women.
Tully explained, “The owners and proprietors of TV channels are obsessed with getting the maximum viewers and so they stick by the rule – news is the views of the day. I believe very strongly in radio. Even now, I often turn to radio rather than television if I want to be entertained,” he said.
1935-born Sir Mark Tully, the recipient of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, had covered some of the momentous historical events of the century in the subcontinent as a journalist over a career spanning three decades (1964 to 94).
As a BBC correspondent, he had covered the Indo-Pak conflicts, Shimla Summit, Bhopal gas tragedy, imposition of Emergency, Operation Blue Star, assassination of Indira Gandhi, anti-Sikh riots, assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the demolition of Babari masjid and many other big happenings.
He was the bureau chief of BBC in New Delhi for 20 years.