MPs, MLAs Take Notice: Henceforth, You Will Pay for Paid News

Paid news may become a thing of the past after a parliamentary panel tells Centre to strongly deal with the menace.

Paid News Syndrome

• A parliamentary panel recommends MPs and MLAs be disqualified if found guilty of paid news
• Newspapers have been found to adhere to a fixed pattern of printing news items that have been paid for
• Paid news syndrome not restricted to an individual but now has multiple players very much like a syndicate
• Despite the issue being flagged in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls, I&B ministry has not done anything to check the menace

If all moves well the menace of election-time paid news may be minimised. The Supreme Court, the Law Commission of India and a parliamentary standing committee have recommended that an elected candidate should be disqualified under Section 123 of the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA).

The ball is now in the court of the Centre which has been requested by the parliamentary Committee on Information Technology to take “conclusive action” within six months.

Section 123 of RPA envisages unseating a law maker – MP or MLA – who pays for “news” to promote him or his party in an election. He is also liable to be disqualified for six years from contesting any election.

The Law Commission and the Press Council have diagnosed the symptoms of paid news so that people can detect it at first glance.

Identifying Paid News

It has been observed that identical articles with photographs and headlines appear in competing publications carrying by-lines of different authors around the same time; or articles praising competing candidates claiming that both are likely to win the same election.

Another identification of ‘paid news’ is when one candidate gets the support of each and every section of society, it’s predicted that he would win from the constituency and news reports, carrying no bylines, favour a particular candidate.

There are instances of a section of newspapers publishing a banner headline stating that a party or a candidate is ready to create history in the state or a constituency but not carrying any report related to the headline.

News items saying that the good work done by a political party or a candidate had marginalised the electoral prospects of the rival party or a candidate is another example of paid news.

There are instances of fixed size news items, each, say, of a length of 125-150 words with a double-column photo. News items are seldom written in such a rigid format whereas advertisements are, according to the Election Commission and the Press Council.

Instances exist when multiple font types and multiple drop case styles were noticed within the same page of a single newspaper. This happened because everything – the layouts, fonts, printouts, photographs – was provided by candidates who had paid for slots in the newspaper pages.

‘Deep Concern’

The parliamentary panel chaired by BJP MP Anurag Singh Thakur submitted the report to the Lok Sabha on August 13 when the House was adjourned sine die. The multi-member panel expressed deep concern at the menace of paid news, saying sections of the media have started receiving monetary or other benefits for publishing or broadcasting “news”, outright favouring individuals or organisations or corporate entities under the garb of surrogate advertisements.

“It has spread at remarkable pace in some sections of the media. The phenomenon has the effect of unduly influencing the financial, stock, real estate market, health, industry and public opinion in election process,” the committee said in its report.

It said “paid news” is not limited to corruption of individual journalists. Instead it has become complex and “organised”, involving multiple players like journalists, manager or owners of media companies, corporations, public relations firms or advertising agencies and some sections of the political class.

No Action to Curb Menace

The committee further noted that although the Election Commission noticed paid news as early as the 2004 general elections, the malpractice surfaced prominently during the 2009 Lok Sabha and subsequent polls. However, the I&B ministry has not done anything substantial to check the menace.

Taking exception to the UPA government’s lackadaisical attitude to the issue, another committee had recommended that the I&B and Law ministries act swiftly on ‘paid news’ and evolve an enforceable mechanism so the “menace is curbed at the earliest.”

The Union government in principle has accepted the committee’s recommendation to formulate a comprehensive policy and evolve an institutional mechanism to address the phenomenon of Paid News. But regrettably, the committee said, it is “disquieting” to note that despite lapse of considerable time, there has been “no tangible progress in the policy making front.”

The first ever case brought to a logical conclusion related to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan who was accused of buying media space during his election but didn’t disclose his election expenses. The Election Commission issued notice to him asking why he shouldn’t be punished for concealing the vital information.

Chavan challenged the EC’s order in the Supreme Court that scrapped his appeal in May last year. He later resigned as CM, negating the impact of the EC’s order.

(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist)