In the past we used to have lies, white lies and statistics. Now you have lies, Sun TV and Jaya TV. The Tamil audience was bombarded with so much of misinformation by these two channels on Oct 13 while reporting the violent filled elections to the Chennai Corporation that truth was the first casualty. Followed by the intelligence of the Tamil public.

While Jaya TV painted a torrid image of rigging all over by DMK men and their goondas Sun TV alleged that violence was the handiwork of the AIADMK and no one else. The truth lay somewhere between. The DMK mobilized its gangs of black and white uniformed thugs during the first two hours of polling to do the stuffing.

In between you had the official lies bandied out by the top cops – DGP Mukherjee, Police Commissioner Letika Saran and the State Election Commissioner M. Chandrasekaran who refuted any large scale violence or rigging or the police remaining mute spectators. It was left to the dailies of the next day to sift through this falsehood and report what really happened in and around those polling booths.

Unfortunately for the Tamil audience it has to wade through the lies, party propaganda and exaggerations resorted to by the party oriented news bulletins of Sun TV and Jaya TV to conclude what really is the truth. Even Raj Tv's news has adopted the play it safe approach after its troubles with the Union Communication Ministry over its licence. Among the other channels Makkal TV is affiliated to the PMK and Win TV and Thamizhan TV are virtually not seen.

Its high time Tamil had an independent news channel free of any party loyalty and capable of reporting events in the state fairly and without fear.

As for the national news channels they are so dependent on SCV, the company owned by the Maran family, for distributing their signals in the state, that they would not like to compromise their business interests for the sake of providing unbiased television coverage to the Tamil public. It's virtually a Catch 22 situation where if you are independent you'll not be broadcast and if you are not you do not make any difference to the present situation.

A truly independent Tamil news channel has to contend with the following – an unfriendly state government and an equally surly main opposition (whose leader detests free press), a distribution network monopolized by the ruling DMK and an audience sold on film based and entertainment programmes. It would require enormous courage, solid staying power and an imaginative mix of programmes to make an impact.

The biggest obstacle would be the SCV network only through which the channel can reach Tamil homes at present. A more sensible alternative would be to ride the DTH wave now gathering momentum. Though initially DTH may not reach all homes, the demand for a credible, impartial channel and the gradual spread of DTH would lead to the dissemination of this new channel.

Ultimately the viewers would go just by one USP – the channel's unblemished character – something the present lot of Tamil news channels totally lack.