ETHICS OF STING OPERATIONS

Sting operations come under new age journalism or investigative

journalism which is a staged operation carried out in order to apprehend a
known or suspected criminal. In India, it is mostly carried out by news
reporters who make use of a hidden camera or smartphone to record the
whole event.
Sting operations have been extremely instrumental in exposing corruption
in the ruling government and other criminal activities bringing it into the
public limelight. On some occasions, it also helps speed up the prosecution
of the criminals as it provides evidence that is otherwise difficult/impossible
to obtain.
The Indian news magazine the Tehelka was especially set up and later
became widely known for its investigative journalism. It became widely
popular calling itself the Peoples Paper as it took up the mounting task or
exposing crime and corruption to preserve the public good.
Sting operations are often seen as viable deterrent to crime as those
tempted to indulge in it may later be prevailed upon to change their mind
for fear of being subjected to a operation and all the negative publicity that
comes with it.
Tehelka is mostly known for its Operation West end which it carried out in
2001 exposing high level corruption in the government. This created a flurry
of interest in the situation and had widespread repercussions as a result of
it.
CASE STUDY (Operation West End)

Criticisms
The practice has been quite controversial even up until recent times being
fraught with questions of authenticity and objectivity. Lord Justice Leveson
frequently uses the term journalistic dark arts to describe the practice
because of all the deception and subterfuge that goes into it. It is still a
grey issue as its authenticity cannot always be proved
independently.Verifying the factual accuracy of the material gathered in the
process is still a difficult matter thus making it quite a contentious issue.
News reporters often go to huge lengths in order to carry out the sting
operation in order to effectively entice the suspect which may also be
construed as entrapment. The Supreme court in 2014 criticized the whole
process discounting it as a legal form of investigation even going so far as
to charge the people carrying out the operation as criminal accessories.
News agencies have also been accused of carrying out sting operations
just for the sake of sensationalism with the view of raising TRPs of the
channel in question. Invasion of privacy is yet another contentious
associated with the practice leading to a legal and ethical quandary
bringing up the question of how sacred the privacy of a person really is
whose actions have a direct effect on public welfare. Sting operations also
have little to no legal backing whatsoever which could prove troublesome in
the judicial process.