Paid News in India

The Press Council of India (PCI) defines paid news as any news or analysis appearing in print or electronic media for consideration in cash or kind. However, it is very difficult to prove that a particular news or analysis appeared in newspaper was paid. So, there are challenges in defining and determining what constitutes or qualifies as ‘paid news’. A parliamentary committee on paid news also include the following under the paid news in its report submitted to Parliament in May 2013.

• Advertisements camouflaged as news
• Denial of coverage to select electoral candidates
• Rise in paid content
• The parliamentary committee had advised the government to formulate a comprehensive legal definition of ‘paid news. The committee suggested that ‘circumstantial evidence’ should be used in identifying paid news.

Why Paid news is on rise?

Most of the Indian media are for profit and owned by corporate. The major reasons why the Paid news has become “pervasive, structured and highly organised” are as follows:

• Corporatisation of media
• Desegregation of ownership and editorial roles
• Decline in autonomy of editors/journalists due to emergence of contract system
• Poor wage levels of journalists

Recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Paid News

The measures suggested by Parliamentary Committee to tackle the Paid news are as follows:

• Government should ensure periodic review of the editor/journalist autonomy and wage conditions.
• Financial accounts of the media houses should be subject to examination, especially the revenue source for a suspected paid news case.
• There should be a mandatory disclosure of ‘private treaties’ and details of advertising revenue received by the media houses.
• The exiting regulatory set-up dealing with paid news as inadequate.
• At present, there are voluntary self-regulatory industry bodies such as News Broadcasting Standards Authority and Broadcasting Content Complaints Council are just an ‘eye wash’.
• The punitive powers of statutory regulators like the PCI and Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) are inadequate. There has been a conflict of interest inherent with appointment of media-owners as members of the PCI or self-regulatory bodies.
• The Parliamentary committee suggested that either there should be a single regulatory body for both print and electronic media or the punitive powers of the PCI should be enhanced and a similar statutory body for the electronic media should be established.
• Such regulators should have the power to take strong action against offenders and should not include media owners/interested parties as members.
• ECI should have the authority to take punitive action against electoral candidates in cases of paid news. It endorsed the ECI’s proposed amendments to the RP Act and urged the government to provide the ECI with more powers to deal with paid news.
• Committee observed that existing penal provisions have not served as an effective deterrent for the practice of paid news and stricter penal provisions are needed. It highlighted the lack of clarity regarding the jurisdiction of the designated authority to penalise offenders, given existence of multiple bodies like the MoIB, PCI, EMMC and ECI.

The parliamentary Committee also said that Government had failed to take appropriate measures as a follow up to various recommendations made by the PCI and the ECI.

Press Council of India Recommendations

The PCI had sought amendment in the Press Council Act, 1978, to make its directions binding on government authorities and bring the electronic media under its purview. The recommendations were as follows:

• Representation of the People Act, 1951 should be amended to make incidence of paid news a punishable electoral malpractice.
• The Press Council of India must be fully empowered to adjudicate the complaints of ‘paid news’ and give final judgment in the matter.
• Press Council Act be amended to make its recommendations binding and electronic media be brought under its purview, and
• Press Council of India should be reconstituted to include representatives from electronic and other media.
• The measures sought by the Election Commission of India
• The ECI has made a reference to the Ministry of Law and Justice to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RP Act) in order to include indulgence of an electoral candidate in paid news as a corrupt practice.
• It also recommended inclusion of abetting and publishing of such paid news as an electoral offence with minimum punishment

Efforts done by Election Commission

Paid news is still a widespread phenomenon in India. There is no blanket prohibition nor is there a provision exclusively dealing with political advertisement or paid news. Thus, legal position of Paid News is such that it cannot be eliminated 100% without very strong law as well as media being ethical. This seems impossible in current environment. Yet, the efforts made by ECI in its limited capacity are worth praises. The Election Commission of India (EC) has estimated (on the basis of its internal assessment) the market of paid news to be of as much as Rs.500 crore. According to the estimates of the Election Commission, around 40% of the election expenditure of political parties is earmarked towards publicity that includes media advertisements. Of the total amount paid to media firms, EC estimates half to be towards paid news.

• The biggest hurdle for election commission of India to tackle the problem is that, paid news is not an electoral offence. The election commission had proposed to the law ministry to make it an electoral offence. Thus, legal position cannot be used by Election Commission to punish those in media. Such matters are referred to the PCI by the ECI, but eventually PCI has its members from those in media houses so never ever anyone punished.
• At the same time, Election Commission is handling the problem on the basis of the expenditures done by a candidate in elections. This finds its legal base in the Representation of the Peoples Act.
• Under sections of the Representation of the People Act, a candidate is required to maintain an account of election expenses and ensure these do not exceed the prescribed limit. A candidate has to file expenses with EC within 30 days from the date of declaration of election results. If the expenditure is mis-stated, a candidate can be served a notice and disqualified for three years. If already elected by the time the scrutiny is complete, the person may lose the seat.
• On the basis of this, in October 2011, the Election Commission had disqualified Umlesh Yadav, the sitting MLA from Bisauli in Uttar Pradesh, under Section 10-A of the Representation of the People Act 1951 for a period of three years for failing to provide a “true and correct account” of her election expenses. She had failed to include in her official poll accounts the amount she spent on advertisements, dressed up as news, in two Hindi dailies, Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala, during her 2007 election campaign.
• This was a historic decision as no sitting MP or MLA before Ms Yadav was ever disqualified by the ECI on grounds of excessive expenditure. This was also the first verdict in the paid news saga
• Apart from that, ECI had issued a set of guidelines to monitor political advertisement during election campaigns. Most notable of them are as follows:
• The state Chief Electoral Officers will have to obtain a list of all TV and Radio Channels and newspapers in the state with their standard rate cards six months before the term of the Lok Sabha or Assembly in state expires.
• There will be a Media Certification and Monitoring Committee at district and state level, which will monitor all political advertisements in relation to candidates.

Apart from that, Election commission has taken help of senior officials of the Income Tax Departments to head its poll expenditure monitoring wing to check the practice of ‘paid news’ and other abuses of money power in elections. Following the name and shame policy, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to upload the names of media houses and candidates on its website if they are found guilty of indulging in paid news.