FOURTH ESTATE AND THE FIFTH COLUMN
The Hindu’s Readers’ Editor – A.S. Panneerselvan had knowingly crossed his Lakshman Rekha, when he remarked in his The Hindu dated the 25 th May 2020 ‘From The Readers’ Editor’ column under the headings – Fourth Estate and the Fifth Column’ that ‘Speaking the truth is the role of the fourth estate; being a megaphone for propaganda is the role of the fifth column’. To equate wrong reporting and even for that matter ‘propaganda reporting’ as alledged by Panneerselvan to the most treacherous trend of Journalism viz. Fifth Column is of narrow and prejudiced and jaundiced mind of the Readers’ Editor. Panneerselvan, to buttress his stand of ‘Fifth Column Journalism’, had shared a personal story: “I was Bureau Chief of Outlook magazine, when it broke the story, “Command Failure”. The report explained that the 1999 war with Pakistan took place as the military and political leadership did not take cognizance of the timely warnings of the man on the ground, Birg. Surinder Singh,