рдЪреБрдирд╛рд╡ рдирдЬрджреАрдХ рд╣реА рд╣реИ рдФрд░ рдПрдХ рдмрд╛рд░ рдлрд┐рд░ рд╕реЗ рдкреЗрдб рдиреНрдпреВрдЬрд╝ рдХрд╛ рдорд╛рдорд▓рд╛ рдЧрд░рдорд╛рдиреЗ рд▓рдЧрд╛ рд╣реИ. рдЗрд╕реА рд╕рдВрджрд░реНрдн рдореЗрдВ рдкреА. рд╕рд╛рдИрдирд╛рде рдХрд╛ рдПрдХ рдорд╣рддреНрд╡рдкреВрд░реНрдг рд▓реЗрдЦ тАШрдж рд╣рд┐рдВрджреВтАЩ рдореЗрдВ рдЫрдкрд╛ рд╣реИ.
тАШYes, we spent money on paid news adsтАЩ рд╢реАрд░реНрд╖рдХ рд╕реЗ рдЫрдкреЗ рдЗрд╕ рд▓реЗрдЦ рдореЗрдВ рдкреА.рд╕рд╛рдИрдирд╛рде рдиреЗ рдЕрдкрдиреЗ рд╢реБрд░реВрдЖрддреА рд▓рд╛рдЗрдиреЛрдВ рдореЗрдВ рд╣реА рд▓рд┐рдЦрд╛ рд╣реИ рдХрд┐, тАШThe political class is more honest than the media when it comes to тАШpaid newsтАЩ during elections, judging by the fact that several poll candidates have owned up to this corrupt practice.тАЩ
рдкреЗрд╢ рд╣реИ рдкреВрд░рд╛ рд▓реЗрдЦ :
тАШYes, we spent money on paid news adsтАЩ
P. Sainath
The political class is more honest than the media when it comes to тАШpaid newsтАЩ during elections, judging by the fact that several poll candidates have owned up to this corrupt practice. At least, after the Election Commission and the Press Council of India shot off notices to them and held inquiries into the matter. They have acknowledged guilt by belatedly adding their тАЬnewsтАЭ buying expenses to their election statement of accounts. Some candidates have accepted in writing that they bought what are now called, somewhat oxymoronically, тАЬPaid News Advertisements.тАЭ But not a single one of the newspapers they say they gave their money to has accepted any wrongdoing. These are not just any papers. In readership terms, they include three top-ranked dailies.
In some cases, the battles are still on, involving both the politicians and newspapers concerned. On January 15, the EC found that Madhya Pradesh Cabinet Minister Narottam Mishra тАЬfailed to lodge his accounts of his election expenses in the manner prescribed by law.тАЭ He faces possible disqualification. The ECтАЩs notice to Dr. Mishra concerns 42 news items on him during the November 2008 state elections. These, it pointed out, тАЬread more like election advertisement(s) in favour of you alone rather than (as) news reports.тАЭ The EC names four newspapers in its notice: Dainik Bhaskar, Nai Duniya, Aacharan and Dainik Datia Prakash. Dainik Bhaskar is the second most-read daily in the country.
Less than a month earlier, the Press Council of India held quite a few dailies guilty of doing much the same thing during the 2010 Bihar assembly polls. These include Dainik Jagran, the newspaper with the highest readership in the country. The others are Dainik Hindustan, Hindustan Times, Dainik Aaj and Purvanchal Ki Raahi. Also, Rashtriya Sahara, Udyog Vyapar Times and Prabhat Khabhar.
In many cases, the route to exposure followed the pattern set in the classic case of the former Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan. His 2009 poll campaign for the State legislature drew scores of full pages of тАЬnews.тАЭ Not a single one of those pages ever mentioned the name of Madhav Kinhalkar, his rival for the Bhokar seat. In a 2009-10 investigation into paid news, The Hindu found a hagiographical article on Mr. Chavan appear word for word in three major rival publications. In two of them, on the same day, in all of them under different by-lines (The Hindu, Nov. 30, 2009).
The 2010 Bihar polls saw a similar pattern. This time, though, one paper came up with a truly novel defence. Same story in different papers? ThatтАЩs not paid news, argues Udyog Vyapar Times. It submits that other newspapers тАЬhack their computer site and publish the same news.тАЭ So what might look like paid news, contends Udyog Vyapar Times, is merely the outcome of desperate rivals hacking into the internal network of this Aligarh-based daily to steal their national exclusives.
How did the candidates issued тАШPaid NewsтАЩ notices for the Bihar polls by the EC react? All but one seem to have accepted their guilt. According to the EC, they did so by simply adding тАЬthe expenditure included by them on account of these тАШnewsтАЩ in their accounts of election expenses.тАЭ In fact, the District Election Officer of Muzaffarpur in Bihar stated flatly that the dailies had carried тАЬnews for payment.тАЭ He even had letters from the candidates owning up to buying тАЬnews.тАЭ
The Press Council of India, acting on the matter referred to it by the EC, issued show cause notices to Dainik Jagran, Dainik Hindustan, Hindustan Times et al, between July and September 2011. On December 21, 2012, the PCI, on the basis of its own inquiry committeeтАЩs report, got tough. Of the high-profile line-up, only Prabhat Khabhar escaped тАЬthe highest penaltyтАЭ of the Press Council тАФ censure тАФ under Section 14 (1) of the Press Council Act of 1978. This was the only case where the paper and the candidate both firmly denied the charge. (In all the other cases, the candidates accepted they had purchased тАЬnewsтАЭ.) And Prabhat KhabarтАЩs own record тАФ it has strongly campaigned against paid news тАФ added weight to its defence. The paper offered to apologise if the EC produced proof of any such aberration. It was тАЬcautioned for the future.тАЭ
All the other dailies denied the charges, too. But, as the PCIтАЩs inquiry committee puts it, тАЬin all these cases, the candidate in question admitted before the Election Commission of India that he paid for the impugned material.тАЭ These dailies were found тАЬguilty of having carried news reports that were in fact self-promotion material provided by the candidate in the fray,тАЭ and so faced the highest penalty of censure.
So quite a few politicians seem willing to confess to their paid news sins. They face penalties, too. Just 16 months ago, the EC disqualified Umlesh Yadav, then sitting MLA from Bisauli in Uttar Pradesh, for a period of three years for failing to provide a тАЬtrue and correct accountтАЭ of her election expenses. She had skipped any mention of her spending on advertisements dressed up as news during her 2007 poll campaign. She was the first legislator ever to bite the dust on grounds of excessive expenditure (and paid news). Dr. Mishra, Health Minister in the BJP government of Madhya Pradesh, now faces charges of the kind that got her disqualified.
Ashok Chavan case
Oddly enough, the Ashok Chavan case, which triggered off a spate of such cases, is itself bogged down in both the EC and the Supreme Court. The case of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda is likewise held up in the courts. Judicial delays could have a serious and possibly adverse impact in the fight against Paid News in the 2014 general election.
But what action do habitual offenders in the media face? The Paid News Committee constituted by the Election Commission has concluded that those 42 тАЬnews itemsтАЭ involving Dr. Mishra тАЬappear to be advertisements in the garb of newsтАЭ and fall тАЬwithin the definition of тАШPaid NewsтАЩ.тАЭ The Press Council defines Paid News as тАЬany news or analysis appearing in any media (print or electronic) for a price in cash or kind as consideration.тАЭ A Press Council team appointed by PCI Chairperson Justice Katju found last month that Paid News had been rampant in Gujarat during the State polls there in December 2012.
So what happens where media outlets concerned are found guilty? Where the тАЬhighest penaltyтАЭ is censure and that draws not even an apology? Of course, Paid News is not only about elections, though thatтАЩs where it does greatest damage to the greatest number. It is an everyday activity in much of the media. The cloying coverage that powerful corporations get routinely reeks of it. You can see it in some completely corporate тАЬsportingтАЭ events or тАЬpartnerships.тАЭ Governments, too, buy тАЬnewsтАЭ sometimes. You can see it at work in Davos, too. Who funds journalists and channels from India at that World Economic Forum event each year is worth looking at. But thatтАЩs another story. Watch this space.
sainath.p@thehindu.co.in
(Courtesy тАУ The Hindu)
