To, The Chairman Press Council of India Soochna Bhavan 8-C.G.

O Complex Lodhi Road New Delhi - 110003 Dear Sir, In the past two months I have read certain articles about Tehelka Magazine (copies of which have been enclosed) that I found extremely worrisome as even an element of truth to the allegations levied against the Magazine, would render a significant constituent of our fourth estate futile. In my attempt to discover the truth, I have made some observations and findings that have served to highlight the need for bringing this matter to your attention. I believe the Magazine has indulged in conduct that constitutes a breach of journalistic ethics a) by killing a story of their reporter on illegal mining against Goa Govt. which was the principal sponsor of the Magazines conference ThinkFest, a three day event in Goa (Details of the event are attached as Annexure), b) by publishing stories providing groundless vindication to big corporations like Esaar and Loop in matters of grave public interest such as 2G and the Naxal crisis which in view of the huge sponsorship provided by Essar to Tehelka for its event could easily be termed paid news I declare that to the best of my knowledge and belief I have placed all the relevant facts before the Council and that no proceedings are pending in any court of law in respect of any matter alleged in the complaint. I shall notify the Council forthwith if during the pendency of the inquiry before the Council any matter alleged in the complaint becomes the subject matter of any proceedings in a court of law. The relevant facts are placed below in a chronological order-

On 27 October, 2011, the Hindustan Times carried an article You scratch my back, Ill scratch yours written by Hartman Desouza, which alleged that an unnamed magazine (later realized to be Tehelka from the response of Tarun Tejpal, the editor of Tehleka, to the said article) had buried a report on illegal mining in Goa by its former correspondent Raman Kirpal because it was reluctant to go after the Goa government. A copy of the article is annexed as Annexure 1. According to the article, a story on Goa mining that appeared on Firstpost was ``first commissioned when the reporter concerned was working for another magazine, which takes pride in being politically neutral. The reason for not carrying the story was allegedly (by the article) that the magazines proprietor had bought an old house in a Goan village and that the said magazine was to hold an `ideas jamboree in Panjim at a hotel owned by a mining company in the near future. It also claimed that the magazine had sent a reporter earlier to Goa and had blocked that story then too.

Three days later, on 30 October, 2011, Tarun Tejpal, the editor of Tehleka, wrote, Albert Pinto ko gussa kyon aata hai in The Hindustan Times (Annexure 2). It was a reply to Hartman Desouzas article and categorically stated that the concerned article was factually wrong and he (Tejpal) did not violate or bend a single rule in acquiring or renovating his old house in Goa. It was also claimed that the reporter was asked to leave the magazine on account of poor performance. In the rejoinder by DeSouza, An open letter to Tarun Tejpal in a media website kafila.org (Annexure 3), it emerged that Tehelka had sent its then reporter, Raman Kirpal to Goa on March 1 to do a story on illegal mining. The rejoinder read: The report that didnt appear in Tehelka was probably the first in-depth, comprehensive and damning indictment of how Goa was being looted, and who the looters were. The said reporter visited between March 1 and 12 finding out, among other things that under the reign of Goas Chief Minister, Digambar aka Digunder Kamat, the Mines Minister from two different parties for the last 12 years, large scale plunder of Goas iron ore was, at the very least, being permitted if not aided. He found out that mining corporates were extracting ore several times more than the quantity for which they had environmental clearances, seemingly with the CMs collusion. Details for 48 mines, more than half of the states 90 active mines, were gathered by him. Amongst the defaulters, there were some well known names like Vedanta and the smaller ones such as Salgaokar and Chowgule, colluding to push villagers off their land with threats and intimidation, extracting ore twice and even four times over what they had permits for. As per the report, over 95 lakh tonnes of iron ore has been illegally mined during the last four years itself a theft of nearly Rs 800 crore. The reporter also studied Karnataka Lok Ayukta Santosh Hegdes report noting that iron ore stolen from Bellary was being shipped to Goa to blend with the local ore. Hartman de Souza, in his rejoinder, said: should Tejpal like, Id be happy to publish the reporters painstaking mails to us, seeking further information, asking for clarifications, and building the base of his contacts. He also alleged that when the reporter went to Digunder Kamat on March 11 to interview him for his response to these findings, at the end of the interview Kamat asked him on which date Tarun Tejpal was visiting Goa, because he had sent word through a powerful Delhi politician that he planned a visit. The rejoinder also alleged that the reporter filed the Goa Mining story. ``One editor at the magazine promised that the story would be carried in two weeks time, and that they were waiting for a few permits that Tehelkas marketing team had gone to get from CM Kamat for a forthcoming Tehelka event. Till date, of course, no story on Goas illegal mining ever appeared in Tejpals independent news magazine. The reporter whom Tejpal now derides accepted a job offer from Firstpost.com on May 18. He made one more exhaustive trip to Goa and published his report of public resources being stolen, on Firstpost.com. The same month, Tehelka began carrying advertisements for its ideas jamboree scheduled in Goa from November 4th to 6th. Go see the Thinkfest ads whereTehelka tom-toms its patrons in its September and October issues Volume 8, Issues 39, 40, 41 and 42. While the mining story on Goa did not conform to Tejpals notion of public interest, it burnt a lot of fingers. This was the report of September 22 that appeared in Firstpost: Yeddy, Reddy, Kamat? Goas Rs 800 cr mining scam is next. (A copy of the said report on illegal mining in Firstpost is annexed as Annexure 4)

The rejoinder also stated The controversy surrounding Tehelka magazines Goa conference, crossed national boundaries. Lydia Polgreen of New York Times wrote: The slick and wellattended conference led some in the Twitterverse and blogosphere to wonder: had Tehelka sold out to Indias mining barons and real estate tycoons? Lucy Archibald of the Wall Street Journal picked up this controversy and wrote: However, some of the controversy merits a closer look. Most contentiously, writing in the Hindustan Times, Hartman De Souza, the sexagenarian theatre veteran and activist, accused the Tehelka editor of compromising a story about Goas illegal mining in order to get a green light for the festival. On 15 November, 2011, Devika Sequeira in Deccan Chronicle wrote a story and alleged that ``after several preliminaries and high-power callssome of them from Sonia Gandhis political adviser Ahmed Patel Tehelka publisher and chief operating officer Neena Tejpal met Chief Minister Digambar Kamat in Goa weeks ahead of Think 2011, the magazines festival of ideas that was held here from November 4 to 6. Also present at the meeting with the Tehelka representatives were Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastava, former tourism secretary D C Sahoo, Finance Secretary S Kumaraswamy, Director (tourism) Swapnil Naik and others. Neena Tejpal, sister of Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal, was business-like and downright arrogant with the Goa chief minister, leaving his aides quite stunned. If Tarun was here, he would have asked for Rs 1.5 crore. How much are you willing to give? she asked Kamat quite bluntly, a government source told Deccan Herald. The source expressed shock at Neenas tone and tenor, considering she was talking to the chief minister of a state. An embarrassed Kamat asked his aides to see which departments could be tapped for funding the fest and the chief secretary finally came up with a figure of Rs 50 lakh for the magazines event. (Annexure 5) Later, after the Tehelkas ThinkFest was over, Tehelkas managing editor Shoma Choudhury wrote and published an article on Tehelka.com, denying every charge and said the reporters story on the Goa Mining wasnt carried because it was poor in facts. ``Early this year, Tehelka had sent a senior editor to Goa to do a mining story. Tehelka had already begun preliminary work on its event THiNK in Goa, but there was a clear decision that this would have no bearing on the mining story that was commissioned. As it turned out, the editor spent close to two weeks in Goa but came back with a disappointingly soft story with no solid facts, no expose of either corporations or the Goa government and barely four to five human interest vignettes (that too insufficiently and poorly done). Chided for the shallow story, the editor was asked to get evidence that actually nailed someone, in the Tehelka tradition. He was also specifically asked to do a hard interview with the Goa chief minister, who is also the mines minister. The editor spent another 10-odd days on it, then filed a fresh draft. To our dismay, the story still fell way below Tehelkas standards. The editor had managed to throw in some superficial figureseasy even for a cub reporter to gather from the many NGOs working in Goabut the story still lacked muscle, showed no hard ground work and did not nail anyone. The interview with the Chief Minister read dismally like a PR interview. In frustration, with no real material to go on, we let the story lapse. Far from killing an explosive story on Goa mining, therefore, the truth is we had to let the story go despite spending both valuable time and money on it because it just did not measure up. (Annexure 6) Shoma Choudhury also pointed out The Deccan Herald report and said ``Such a brazenly ugly and fictitious story does not deserve an editorial response: we have asked the Deccan Herald to

publish an unconditional apology. Failing that, Tehelka will sue the Deccan Herald for criminal defamation. But the information on the said meeting obtained under RTI (Documents are annexed as Annexure 7) does not support Ms. Shoma Choudharys contention. It in fact lends credence to the allegations in the story published by The Deccan Herald. The documents, obtained under RTI, pertaining to the meetings held at the official residence of Shri Digambar Kamat, Chief Minister, Goa, between Ms. Neena Tejpal, COO, M/s Anant Media Pvt. Ltd. (Tehelka group) and various Ministers and Officials of the Govt. of Goa, presided over by the Chief Minister, regarding the sponsorship of Tehelka magazines Goa conference, Think Fest (4th-6th November, 2011), show that the Goa Govt. approved an amount of Rs 35 lakhs as case sponsorship for the event along with two dinners (amounting to Rs 6.92 lakhs, one of which was to be organised by the Chief Minister himself). The Goa Govt. also sanctioned an amount of Rs 18 lakhs on two cultural events alone. As is evident on a plain reading of the documents, Tehelka initially asked for an amount of "Rs 75 lakhs or so" and even after an amount of Rs 50 lakhs was sanctioned, negotiated for a higher sponsorship from Goa Govt. in the second meeting. The Govt. also promised to foot the bill for various other things: transportation, entertainment, dinners and stays. The transport was by way of taxis for their guests to and from airport and also Goa Govt Kadamba buses to ferry the janata to the event. Dinner parties included endless serving of liquor, etc. Another matter which further casts suspicion on the objectivity of the Magazine is its purported defence of Essar and Loop in the 2G matter. Ashish Khetan, Editor, Tehelka in his article titled The Madness in the CBIs Method which appeared in Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 52, dated 31 Dec 2011, casts doubts on the credibility of CBI itself to structure a defence for Essar which consequently also happened to be one of the chief sponsors of the Magazines Thinkfest, organized a month prior to the publication of the said story. It was stated, The latest Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet against the promoters of Essar Group and Loop Telecom is premised on dubious legal opinions, raising a serious question about the credibility of the entire 2G probe. (Annexure 8) The irresponsible manner in which the journalist has declared Essar to be innocent without examining the assailed chargesheet and dealing with the substantive facts established by a series of unimpeachable events unearthed by CBI in its investigation which showed how Loop was just a front company created by Essar to wrongly obtain the license and cheat the public, smacks of forced or maybe even paid lack of objectivity. This convenient prejudice was even more glaringly obvious in The Inconvenient Truth Of Soni Sori was published in Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 41, dated October 15, 2011 where Ms. Shoma Chaudhury incongruously clubbed Essar with innocent tribals and claimed they were victims of the Police in the Naxal crisis too. This incongruity was noted and commented on by Bobby Kunhu in Everybody Loves a Good War Tehelka and Essar published at kafila.org (Annexure 9) who on Tehelkas argument that Essar is also being framed in this narrative along with Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi, said, It is in this context that one finds Tehelkas blanket exoneration of Essar group intriguing. And the attempts at equating the travails of Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi with the plight of Essar mischievous.

In view of the facts and publications placed before you above, I urgently request you to further investigate the matter and following the conclusion, take the actions you deem necessary to deter such breach of journalistic ethics by this Magazine and others in future.

Name and address of the publication whose matter is sought to be investigated: