Sting 'journalism' in India hit a new low when hidden cameras captured a fading Bollywood star trying to seduce a young female journo posing as an actress.

While the stings are considered a standard part of the Indian news media's tool kit, there is some push-back coming from the courts.

An excerpt from the BBC story:

The past year has been a never-ending sting season on television news.

Parliamentarians have been caught on camera seeking cash for questions and their share of constituency funds; officials have been caught taking bribes; doctors have been filmed selling infants from hospitals; clerics shown issuing fatwas for money. A policeman was caught demanding bribes to hand over the body of a man to his family.

All this and more in the public interest, or the "greater common good" as the channels never tire of reminding viewers.

Bollywood actor Shakti Kapoor caught in a sting

But concerns are already being raised about stings, which Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal calls the "greatest tool of journalistic investigation and exposure".

Not surprisingly, politicians and authorities who have been at the receiving end of the stings are demanding some sort of legislation to rein in the news channels.

Some journalists say stings are blurring the line between journalism and entrapment, between public interest and voyeurism.

Now the Supreme Court has raised concerns over freelance sting operators hawking their 'exposés' to the highest bidder.

"Whether it [sting operation] is in public interest or to make money will have to be examined one day," the judges said.

That observation has annoyed the country's most well-known sting operator, Aniruddha Bahal. He started out with the weapons corruption and cricket match fixing stories with Tehelka and now runs an independent production company making programmes - and sometimes stings - for news channels.

"There's no thriving freelance sting journalism industry in India as the judges seem to think. Stings are serious business and not everybody has the guts to do it or telecast it.

"The few people who do work on stings outside the news channels are journalists. Do you mean freelance journalists can't do stings?" asks Mr Bahal.