Barkha Dutt, group editor of NDTV news channel, will go on air tonight at 10 pm and submit herself to questioning by a panel of four journalists over the Radia tapes. Dutt has been under increasing pressure to come up with a credible explanation ever since one of the leaked tapes revealed her talking to corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and assuring her that she would put in a word to the Congress party to help swing the telecom minister's job for A Raja. NDTV put out a statement, as did Dutt, on the channel's website, but the pressure from cybermedia has continued to mount further. So, tonight, Dutt will submit to questioning by a panel comprising Dileep Padgaonkar, Swapan Dasgupta, Sanjaya Baru and Manu Joseph.

The revelation of the links between journalists, politicians and corporate lobbyists has, however, already created ripples abroad and sullied the image of Indian media. Here is Tunku Varadarajan's take, published on the Daily Beast.