The Hindu Business Line : Sensitivity and information flow

Was there more “excitement” about the opening of the Taj or the Oberoi, was the rather audacious question put to a correspondent of this paper who was covering the re-opening of the two terror-sieged hotels last month.

The insensitive query, just hours before the formal re-opening of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel’s tower wing, was made to the journalist by a firm handling the hotel’s public relations. Even as journalists juggled covering the all-faith meeting at the Oberoi-Trident earlier on the same day and the formal opening at the Taj later that evening, the lady with the PR agency was already doing her “dipstick” survey of whether her client had got better press coverage!

Similar PR one-upmanship was evident earlier too, when the same correspondent was told “exclusively” of a meeting with the Taj management on the eve of its formal opening — something the correspondent was not to share “even with her husband”, according to the PR girl! Eventually, it turned out that a large part of the media fraternity was, in fact, aware of this “exclusive” meet! And the international media, for some strange reason, was briefed separately by the Taj management. Worse, some Indian magazines were not invited to either interaction with the Taj management, since (as the PR person put it) “there was no place”!

Pity, that the coverage on the return to normalcy of the hotel got mired in innocuous divisive “protocols”. Especially, when the grand Taj was, as legend has it, set up by Jamshedji Tata in defiance of not being allowed entry into a hotel run by the white-man!

Information flow

All that journalists covering the terror-attacks, their local and international affiliations notwithstanding, were seeking was a formal channel for the flow of information. The Taj management did eventually interact with the press on the eve of its re-opening but much confusion had already prevailed.

Since the names of both five-star hotels struck by terror are taken in the same breath, the information flow should also be viewed similarly. The management of The Oberoi-Trident, including Chairman P. R. S. Oberoi, fielded questions from the media the very evening the commandos had ended the siege at the hotel. There was a complete press preview on the day before the formal opening, and the all-faith meeting on Sunday morning too was open to the media.

Introspect

The media has a role beyond being fair-weather friends. In fact, journalists (several of them with little protection) stood outside the hotels that were struck by terror, covering it for 60 hours till the elite commandos brought it to an end.

In the line of fire themselves, media professionals worked with little sleep, food and water to bring home to readers stories of heroes, victims and hostages who rose from the terror-struck Chahatrapati Shivaji Terminal, Leopolds, Cama Hospital, Nariman House, Oberoi-Trident and Taj Hotels.

As is their mandate, the media has been bringing out stories of brave policemen, fire-men, ambulance staff and commandos, hotel and hospital staff who went beyond their call of duty, the joy of people reuniting with family and the tears of those losing loved ones. With information being the key, managements of institutions like those who were the unfortunate victims of terror, need to do a rethink. As the dust settles, more than a month after the terror attacks in Mumbai, it needs to be understood that information should be disseminated to the public — professionally, sensitively and with grace.

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