Editors are looking for ways to deal with the ethical questions thrown up by the Nira Radia tapes controversy.

They met at the Press Club of Delhi on Friday and discussed what they needed to do in the wake of tape disclosures casting a shadow on the role of journalists in the 2G spectrum scandal. The transcripts suggest Barkha Dutt of NDTV and Vir Sanghvi of Hindustan Times were mediating between the DMK and the Congress during the formation of the central cabinet, but both journalists have said they were just humouring a source.

Vinod Mehta, executive editor of the Outlook group, said he was not convinced that a new code of conduct had to be evolved for journalists. It was wrong of journalists, even with the existing norms, to have cosied up to Nira Radia.

Rajdeep Sardesai, chairman of the Editors Guild of India, said many issues needed to be discussed and guidelines evolved. He said what was worrying was the proximity of journalists to corporate houses and politicians. He

Barkha Dutt, group editor of NDTV, appeared on a special show on Tuesday and defended her conversations with corporate PR consultant Nira Radia. She admitted she had made an "innocent error of judgment" and promised to be more careful in her choice of sources, but asserted she was not guilty of corruption or lobbying.

Barkha answered questions from a panel of editors, including Manu Joseph of Open magazine. The discussion was heated and she traded charges of journalistic impropriety with Joseph. She was highly strung and emotional, but managed to sail through the show smiling. Towards the end, she accused the panellists of misogyny.

Joseph asked her why she had not reported that a corporate PR consultant was mediating between the Congress and the DMK. He described it as "the story of the decade" that "even a cub reporter" would recognise. Barkha said she was only focused on her political story, and was not aware of the proxy corporate battles Nira's telecom clients (the

Barkha Dutt, group editor of NDTV, will find herself being "court martialled" on the channel today, where she'll be grilled by four journalists on the Radiagate controversy. One of the four panelists will be Manu Joseph of Open Magazine, which broke the story in the first place. The show is said to give Barkha a chance to present her side of the story.

Tunku Varadarajan (@tunkuv on Twitter) makes a salient point on The Daily Beast about Barkha being India's Katie Couric, US's infamous talk show host who found herself in a very similar situation, in what is a disturbing testament to the overused media tenet, "History repeats itself".

After the controversy broke out, several, nay, most media houses stayed away from writing about the taped conversations (said to be doctored in order to sensationalise the story), but Ratan Tata went a step ahead in moving the Supreme Court to prevent further tapes from being leaked to the media, citing privacy concerns as the reason. As this

The classified documents released by WikiLeaks show how American leaders, who seem respectful in their diplomatic dealings, talk more candidly among themselves, and understandably, no world leader is outraged yet.

India, Iran, Turkey, Israel, and several other nations mentioned in the conversations have taken the revelations in their stride. That's a relief for now, but what's the guarantee that more scandalous revelations aren't coming up?

Not many in India are offended by Hillary Clinton calling the country a "self-appointed frontrunner" for a UN Security Council seat. Except for a TV channel, which portrayed her statement as an example of American doublespeak (the US is officially supportive of India's bid), few commentators have found the leaks hard to digest. In fact, American scepticism about India's UN seat bid is not unknown.

Though embarrassed over some disclosures, America has so far come out clean, prompting The New York Times to write a laudatory editorial:

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