Confessions by politicians to EC belie
claims of innocence by top newspapers
- P. Sainath
The political class is more honest than the media when it comes to ‘paid
news’ 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 “news” buying expenses to their election
statement of accounts. Some candidates have accepted in writing that
they bought what are now called, somewhat oxymoronically, “Paid News
Advertisements.” 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 “failed to lodge his accounts
of his election expenses in the manner prescribed by law.” He faces
possible disqualification. The EC’s notice to Dr. Mishra concerns 42
news items on him during the November 2008 state elections. These, it
pointed out, “read more like election advertisement(s) in favour of you
alone rather than (as) news reports.” 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 “news.” 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?
That’s not paid news, argues Udyog Vyapar Times. It submits that
other newspapers “hack their computer site and publish the same news.”
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 ‘Paid News’ 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 “the expenditure included by
them on account of these ‘news’ in their accounts of election expenses.”
In fact, the District Election Officer of Muzaffarpur in Bihar stated
flatly that the dailies had carried “news for payment.” He even had
letters from the candidates owning up to buying “news.”
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 committee’s report, got tough. Of the
high-profile line-up, only Prabhat Khabhar escaped “the highest penalty”
of the Press Council — censure — 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 “news”.) And Prabhat Khabar’s own
record — it has strongly campaigned against paid news — added weight to
its defence. The paper offered to apologise if the EC produced proof of
any such aberration. It was “cautioned for the future.”
All the other dailies denied the charges, too. But, as the PCI’s inquiry
committee puts it, “in all these cases, the candidate in question
admitted before the Election Commission of India that he paid for the
impugned material.” These dailies were found “guilty of having carried
news reports that were in fact self-promotion material provided by the
candidate in the fray,” 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 “true and correct
account” 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 “news items” involving Dr. Mishra “appear to be advertisements
in the garb of news” and fall “within the definition of ‘Paid News’.”
The Press Council defines Paid News as “any news or analysis appearing
in any media (print or electronic) for a price in cash or kind as
consideration.” 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 “highest penalty” is censure and that draws not even an apology? Of
course, Paid News is not only about elections, though that’s 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
“sporting” events or “partnerships.” Governments, too, buy “news”
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 that’s another story. Watch this space.
sainath.p@thehindu.co.in
courtesy : The Hindu / 29.01.2013
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