Crack down on paid news
The Election Commission has decided to crack down on paid news since it sees in this trend a potential for causing “maximum damage” to the electoral process. The media represents or is morally bound to represent an entity that puts forth the interests of the people. The people prima facie have faith in unbiased reporting by the media. It is a keeper of public conscience and establishes a level playing field like an unbiased third umpire, and therein lies its legitimacy. Therefore, it cannot be seen or be politically committed, inclined or worse still manipulate the news. But today, shamefully the media itself is seen to be biased, committed and there is a rush to own newspapers and television channels by business houses and even political parties since it provides them the leeway to manipulate news.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s allegations of instances of paid news in the media in Goa have drawn widespread condemnation from media persons, but the media needs to introspect to see what led the chief minister to make such a statement. Was he castigating an existent trend or was he referring to some unsubstantiated allegations? If the chief executive has some reason to make the claims of paid news being a practice in the Goa media, it means that either he may himself have had an experience of it, or has known someone who has done so. Therefore it is but exigent upon the chief minister to come clean and declare which of the two scenarios is true, and which sections of the media have indulged in paid news and expose such media persons, as also those who put in the paid news.
The EC has set up a ‘media certification and monitoring committee’ (MCMC) in every district and made it mandatory for the media to get all political advertisements cleared by a scrutiny committee. The MCMC members keep a watch on newspapers and TV channels to check if advertisements for a particular party or candidate are being pushed through in the garb of a story. This practice was widespread in the past not only in Maharashtra and Haryana but even in Goa.
The media which is quick to come down on the criminalisation of politics, transparency in the functioning of political parties and auditing of political party funds as some of the areas that need urgent attention, has to introspect and clean up its own house.
There have been reports of the government itself occasionally leaning on media houses to hire a particular person, slant news and even paying for it. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections rumours are rife that certain moves have been made by those in power to take over news casting and news slanting despite the EC’s stringent guidelines and resolve to punish the guilty.
The EC manual on expenditure monitoring makes it clear that ‘paid news’ is unlawful and the poll watchdog’s system should be “robust enough” to track and act against the wrongdoers. “We will not only include paid news in the account of the poll expenditure but also take action against the accused, including file a police complaint,” the EC manual states.
The public should be alert to instances of paid news and report these to the election observers or expenditure observers at the district and constituency levels. The Goan public, NGOs and every citizen should be vigilant and guard against paid news in newspapers and cable TV, even if this means acting against their favourite paper which they have trusted for decades. Serious attempts are on to grab the two Lok Sabha seats by adopting means fair or foul and targeting certain sections and parts of the state. Vigilance is the eternal price of democracy. So should it be with paid news as we head into election season.
