The “national” media in India—a loose moniker that alludes to Delhi-based newspapers, magazines and TV stations—are routinely accused of picking up stories from the regional language press and passing them off as “exclusives” when no one is watching.
Fingers are now being pointed at the northern editions of The Indian Express which on November 23 “broke” the contents of the Liberhan Commission report on the demolition of the Babri masjid.
The “leak” resulted in the report, 17 years in the making, being hurriedly tabled in Parliament, and the paper published a mandatory ad on its pages the following day crowing its scoop.
But a group of anonymous journalists say in an email say that the Liberhan report contents were actually revealed by The Tribune, Chandigarh, almost five months earlier in two page-one stories (here and here) on consecutive days by Naveen S. Garewal.
This is the text of a chainmail doing the rounds:
The Indian Express is now claiming (see advertisement above) that the story on Liberhan commission indicting Advani others has been first reported by the Express.
This is nothing but lies.
The Tribune, a 127-year-old newspaper published from Chandigarh, broke the story on July 1, 2009. The Express only copied (a major portion of that the story) and passed it off as its own.
NDTV please note.
Should so-called ethical journalists not give credit to Tribune, which broke the story?
Be true to your profession.
Newspaper facsimiles: courtesy The Tribune, The Indian Express
IJR 
Woah shame shame.. it took 4 months for news to travel from Chandigarh to Delhi? What kind of an ‘express’ is this?
But need to say the Delhi paper was quite ‘express’ive with their ‘achievement’
The Tribune had nothing about Atal Behari Vajpayee though.
do you actually believe Atal Behari Vajpayee had anything to do with it though? it’s rather politics with these commissions nowadays. know who cbi works for?
TO say that Tribune ‘broke’ the Liberhan story earlier is completely wrong. I am reader of both newspapers and after reading your report re-read the two stories again. The Tribune story was at best a calculated guess. If they had the report, why didn’t they write about Vajpayee being found guilty and former PM Narasinha Rao being given a clean chit.
Also, why nobody took note of Tribune reports if they were correct? Any answers?
Indian Express deserves credit for getting hold of the Liberhan report and ‘scooping it as they say in journalism.