There is a storm brewing in the Indian blog world today.

Chyetanya Kunte, an Indian blogger based in Netherlands, was unhappy with the way a mainstream media journalist reported news about the Mumbai terror attacks and decided to blog his thoughts.

Unfortunately, that reaction (or criticism) didn’t go down too well with the NDTV journalist - Ms Barkha Dutt - and their legal team therefore forced this blogger to withdraw the original story and also issue an unconditional apology.

Barkha has earlier covered topics like “regulating blogs” but I sincerely hope that she would also consider making this latest issue a topic of discussion during her next ”We The People” debate on NDTV.

Sued for Quoting Wikipedia

Strong reactions are pouring in from all corners in support of the poor blogger while Barkha Dutt has this to say on the media coverage in Mumbai:

I believe that criticism is what helps us evolve and reinvent ourselves. But when malice and rumour are regarded as feedback, there can be no constructive dialogue… But, when, comments begin targeting character, morality and integrity of individuals and the commentary becomes more about the individual, than the issue, then frankly, the anger is just destructive and little else.

Another point worth a discussion here is that Chyetanya used some excerpts from Wikipedia to prove his point but NDTV asked him to apologize for that statement as well though it was a finding based on Wikipedia and not his own.