My Presentation on Paid News at Bhopal IMC Seminar

The issue of Paid news has been dwelt at length across the length and breadth of the country ad nauseum. So, I do not wish to get into the history, incidents or methods of the phenomemon or how it is a threat to democracy itself as several organizations such as Editors’ Guild, journalist unions and eminent individuals have spoken volumes about it. I would like to focus on certain aspects hitherto unaddressed or less attended to.

To simply put it, Paid news is publishing/broadcasting advertisements masquerading as news.

Though Lifafa journalism wherein reporters were paid cash or gift vouchers along with the press release by politicians and business houses has been in vogue for a long time now, feeble voices against publication of news in return for money were heard during the General elections of 2004.

While taking gift vouchers from corporates and some obligations from politicians such as telephone, gas connections, school and college admissions and even jobs were widely prevalent, what has now grabbed the attention is its being institutionalized not by poverty stricken reporters but the publishers themselves, for whom media has increasingly become a commodity like the toilet soap. At this juncture, I do not wish to extend this analogy to another thing used in the toilet.

Now the deception and fraud that such paid news entails is not confined to the reader of the publication or the viewer of the television programme who is deceived into believing that what is essentially an advertisement is in fact an independently produced news content.



Secondly, the candidate concerned violates the Conduct of election rules, which are expected to be enforced by the Election Commission under the Representation of People Act, by not declaring officially the expenditure involved in planting “paid news”.

And last but not the least, the publishing house or television channel violates the provisions of the Companies Act as also the Income Tax Act by not accounting for the money received from the candidates. Thus, all the three are guilty.

But if you have noticed, apart from the right thinking people in the media who are genuinely concerned about the fate of media and the consequence of such trends, a lot of noise is being made by politicians, who have touched the Nadir in corruption.

Yet, they seem to be most concerned about it. Always at the receiving end of the media outburst, they have found a golden opportunity to hit back and put the media in the dock.
So, they have now started shouting from the rooftops at every seminar and workshop and even raised the issue on the floor of the Parliament, demanding that the media be reined in. They have suddenly found the Press Council to be an old toothless tiger having all along ignored the pleas of trade unions and other media organizations to grant more powers to it.

Their concern is understandable. So far, they had cultivated a loyal group of media persons or one or two news papers, who were obliged with often small change, some foreign trips, some committee membership, some transfer postings, some costly Diwali gifts, some awards and once in a blue moon, a Rajya Sabha nomination. But with the institutionalization of lifafa journalism, things have changed. The new media management does not want either Rajya Sabha membership or any award or transfers. They want hard cash, and that too not in thousands or lakhs but in crores and if you don’t pay, they will dig the coffin of your political fortunes.




Politicians fear that they will be edged out of the race if paid news becomes a trend. Since richer candidates have a greater spending power, they can be lavish with their budgets and hence dominate news. They do not even have to account for this expense to the Election Commission, since this transaction is always in cash.

Politicians also feel that they come under pressure from media houses, because if they don’t pay a particular publication, forget the prospects of black out, there is every possibility of them being run down by a negative campaign.

Money has become a great leveler. Ideologies have taken a back seat so have personal loyalties. Coverage goes to the highest bidder.

Hence, this outcry from politicians. The louder their voice, identify them as the worst victims of the phenomenon. For once, the politician is finding himself cornered by a Frankenstein, a Bhasmasur, he himself gave birth to.

Now, coming to the role of the Election Commission which has expressed righteous indignation over the phenomemon and is now being projected by the political class as the saviour who can rescue them from the clutches of paid news.

I firmly believe that the so-called Electoral Reforms which banished cheaper modes of election communication between the candidates and the voters such as pamphlets, posters, handbills, wall writings, badges and even loud speakers on auto rickshaws have forced many a politician to resort to such methods to reach out to the people. Elections earlier were a festival of sorts, a festival of democracy where party and independent candidates would jostle for space on street corners, walls with their posters and pamphlets.





Yes, the walls would get defaced and would have to be painted or whitewashed again. We can always bill it to the candidate concerned and even if the civic agency pays for it, it would be much cheaper than the price we now have to pay to save our democracy from this phenomenon.

We have read reports of how independent candidates shelled out their life’s savings not to campaign but to at least let the world know that they too were in the fray. They had to pay upwards of Rs 50,000/- for a single mention in a newspaper whereas with Rs 5,000, they could have painted the town red with their posters. Even a couple of bill boards in small towns would have been much cheaper. There is a popular book in Kerala ‘Ningalenne Communist aaki” (You made me a Communist). I would tell the EC ‘You created Paid News’.

Not that the media is a holy cow. More than anything else, it is the introduction of the contract system in the newspaper industry that has undermined the independence of the journalist and the primacy of the editor. We have credible reports of how selected journalists were targeted by media managements for not implementing such malpractices.

I am not getting into the details of private treaties and other obnoxious practices such as Medianet being practiced by certain media houses. They deserve condemnation of the highest order.

But a very interesting trend in paid news is the domination of the regional media vis-à-vis their English counterparts. Not that the English wallahs are a morally superior lot.

The English papers are far ahead of their regional counterparts when it comes to corporate clout as they cater more to the English speaking investor.



So we have dime a dozen advisors and experts on business channels who give free advice to viewers on which share to buy and which to sell. Even media critics on these channels rubbish films that do not pay. I have heard Editors Guild member, CNN-IBN’s Rajdeep Sardesai admitting on record that they promote films for money.

Thus, a great film like ‘A Wednesday’ is dismissed without much of a mention and a mediocre movie like ‘My Name is Khan’ is projected in Oscar proportions.

But the Hindi or other regional publications beat their English counterparts hollow when it comes to political clout due to their wide circulation in the rural areas and among the voting public and certainly this matters most in our number game democracy. The regional media perceives elections as a God-send opportunity to get even with their English counterparts in terms of revenue generation.

Not that English media does not play the political game. A recent discussion on youth in politics on CNN-IBN showed only endless footages of Rahul Gandhi as if no other young politicians are around in a nation of one billion plus.

I can go on and on. Problems galore and we have discussed them at length. But what are the solutions. I dare to suggest a few.

1. Put an end to contract system in newspapers and television so that the journalists can work fearlessly and say no to unethical practices of the management.

2. We can give a pay hike to crorepati MPs but not strictly enforce Wage Board recommendations in all newspapers. Why? Give the journalist a decent salary to lead a comfortable life and I can assure you he will make other’s life miserable.





3. Bring back the festival atmosphere in elections. Let there be hoardings, pamphlets, posters and handbills all over. Let even the poorest candidate have the means to reach out to his electorate. Don’t force him to look for surreptitious methods to make his presence felt.


4. Give real powers to an expanded Media Council and bring the Registrar of Newspapers/Licencing authority of television channels and the DAVP under its legal jurisdiction and equip it with the power to cancel the title/license of erring newspapers and withhold Government advertisements to erring publications and channels. The decisions of the Council can be challenged only in the Supreme Court.

5. Clear cut rules and guidelines should be laid down to ensure that media, both print and electronic, draws clear distinction between advertisement and independent editorial content. As in the case with adult content, warnings in regional languages mentioning the paid nature of the content should be aired before the telecast of the programme.


6. The politicians have united to oppose the ‘Paid News’ phenomenon. Let them show the same solidarity in saying a firm ‘no’ when such publishers or broadcasters approach them in future and let them inform each other, inform the election commission and even hold a press conference to state that they have been approached with a coverage package. May I also suggest that they too conduct a sting operation on such journalists and expose them. Let a handful of politician do it and it will serve as a deterrent on such unscrupulous media persons and organizations.




7. Even among hardened criminals, the rapists and paedophiles are looked down upon with contempt. Let our media organizations and institutions shame such unscrupulous fellows through our websites and show their worth to the world. For how many rupees they were bought. The IAS officers in UP have done that. We too can. Let us ostracise and if possible boycott such journalists.

Let us not forget that media is an integral part of the society. The conscientious among the lot will have to take the initiative and rid the profession of this disease, which is now taking epidemic proportions. If we don’t eliminate and exterminate this menace, it will finish us, our credibility as the voice of the voiceless at a critical juncture in the nation’s life when all other institutions have fallen apart.