NEW DELHI : Parliamentarians have brought into the notice of the Government that awards instituted by the media houses these days to honour industrialists, professionals and personalities were another form of paid news.
Noting the mushrooming award ceremonies, they said those who were felicitated at these functions were most often the sponsors and regular advertisers of the media houses.
The Parliamentarians also said during the last two decades, apart from print media, television, which is commonly known as electronic media, has emerged strongly and has become increasingly corporatised and greater emphasis is on the business and other commercial aspects.
Moreover, the traditional practice of having completely insulated offices of the Editor and the Publisher to preserve the autonomy and independence of the media also appears to have been compromised, they said. ”In post-independence era, the media developed in a healthy manner and continued the same way for a couple of decades and then started deteriorating after it became much powerful. Everybody realised that the press is the important source of reaching to the people because its credibility was very high,” they said.
The Parliamentarians said sometimes, a kind of indirect blackmailing is resorted to by some sections of the media by not giving any kind of publicity to a contesting candidate until he pays or on some occasions giving more favourable publicity to someone on account of personal relationships. ”This is the background in which the candidates who were contesting the elections realised that influencing media by one way or the other would be more productive than paying for other sources like advertisements and other means of publicity, thereby paving way for this malpractice,” they said.
The Parliamentarians said although the Election Commission had started noticing the menace as early as 2004 General Elections itself, the malpractice of ?Paid News? surfaced prominently during General Elections of 2009 and thereafter.
As informed by the Press Council of India (PCI), they said in over last six decades Paid News have changed its form ranging from accepting gifts on various occasions, going on a sponsored foreign and domestic tour, to other benefits and direct payment of money.
In a report, the Parliamentarians suggested that the Government should meticulously formulate a mechanism to tackle paid news after taking into consideration all its forms, facets and dimensions.
The related aspects of the issue were also deliberated by the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Paid News. The issue of formulating a comprehensive policy and institutional mechanism to address the phenomenon of paid news was under the consideration of the Government.
The Government is of the view that any action on paid news through legislative action would require parliamentary approval for which political consensus is a pre-requisite. (UNI)
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