In the United States it was renegade net journalist Matt Drudge who first made the public aware of the Monica Lewinski scandal, but the Indian web site Tehelka.com went a step further with a sting operation that is currently threatening to bring down the Indian government.
Tehelka sent reporters posing as arms dealers selling hand-held thermal imaging devices (which were completely fictional — the product doesn’t exist). Indian law bars politicians and others from taking bribes as part of the military procurement process, but the Tehelka reporters caught numerous politicians, bureaucrats and army officials on videotape accepting bribes to smooth the way for the purchase of the thermal imaging devices.
On Tuesday, March 13, Tehelka began posting the videotapes on its web site and within 24 hours four army officials had been sacked. The main opposition party in India, the Congress Party, is calling for the resignation of the ruling coalition government given the widespread corruption that Tehelka uncovered.
This isn’t the first corruption investigation by Tehelka, though it’s certainly the most significant. Last year the site sparked an international sports furor with its expose of widespread fixing of cricket matches.
Sources:
Heads roll in India bribery scandal from the BBC
UN suspends aid to Afghans from the BBC
Indian website breaks the mould from the BBC
The Tehelka tapes from the BBC