"We're fortunate to have an information overload."

When asked about journalism school, Mr. Mohan said, "I did not know that because we did not have formal training then. Very few journalism schools had started then; at that time we had people just coming out of journalism school but we thought those who did not go to journalism schools were the successful ones. But you cannot say that today. I am sure the future ones will be better than we were. We were thrown into the deep end and we learnt; today they study the media and then get into it."


He agreed that there is an information overload today. "We are going to see much more of it. You are going to be able to stream data into all kinds of devices. In a way it is good. It helps you keep in touch with the world. People today should consider themselves fortunate."

On the subject of 'paid news', Mr. Mohan said, "...politicians are very uncertain people. The greatest uncertainty in their life comes before the elections. Every politician in power wants to hang on to it, at any cost. Paid news is not the only phenomena, there are other subtle ways of doing it."



"I always viewed politicians in the same way as Diego Maradona-- he called them scoundrels. All of them, regardless of whether they are red or saffron, centrist or middle-of-the-road. I have very little regard for the Indian politician.


"We have pressure put on us from all fronts, advertising people, P.R. agencies, even from newspaper management. You have to strike these little compromises everyday, all along the day. It's not easy, but you learn to trust your judgment. Journalists today, are actually running too few newspapers in India. I am lucky.''



Speaking about media trial the judiciary, he said, " It might have helped the judiciary. Today's judiciary is much more pro-active than it was twenty or thirty years ago."



"Ethics is an integral part of a journalist's life. It is very good to know about ethics and weigh them. It will help considerably to have read about ethics before entering the profession.


"When we started journalism, we used to think that we were being paid equal to truck drivers or auto rickshaw men. We earned very, very little. We started off with two hundred rupees a month, but it was not a bad sum, we could live with that amount. Today's compensation level is far better. "

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