Responsible journalism, according to Rajdeep Sardesai, "is telling the story with all its shades of grey".

Speaking at a session titled Cross-Border Journalism - about how the media in India and Pakistan view each other - at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet, in association with Victoria Memorial and The Telegraph on January 23, Sardesai said the propensity of the media on either side of the border to see each other in shades of black or white is what complicates their relationship.

Fellow panellist Mehr Tarar spoke from personal experience about how news channels, for lack of newsworthy events, "hype one matter", not caring what it does to the viewers.

For Sankarshan Thakur, it is the journalist's job to report as honestly as possible. This, he says, stems from an understanding that human beings on the other side of the LoC are "equally capable of happiness and suffering".

Writer and educationist from Pakistan, Anam Zakaria, pointed out that most people in Pakistan live without ever meeting an Indian. Bollywood and news bulletins combine to make India seem like "an exotic enemy" to them. Sardesai added that the unwillingness on the part of the media and the people to see Pakistanis and the Pakistani state as separate entities is the source of the skewed image of Pakistan.

Chairing the session was Ruchir Joshi, who said "peace is boring" and that the media needs "things to be on the boil" for business to go on.

Tarar admitted that while the Pakistani media should stop blaming India for the problems ailing Pakistan, the people of Pakistan feel as deeply about the Pathankot attack as they do about the attacks on the Bacha Khan University.

Joshi's attempt to end the session on a positive note reached an impasse when all the panellists agreed that an economic union with porous borders, like the one in Europe, was "too idealist", as Thakur put it.

Sardesai said there is a need to acknowledge the "elephant in the subcontinent" that wields a gun. Journalists, however, need to see themselves as South Asians first. Sitting in the newsroom and practising the politics of the man with a bayonet was disrespecting the profession, he said.

The session, Thakur summed, ended on a positive note as he pulled out a bunch of flowers that had been sent for Tarar by the man who calls himself "unbelievable".