Threat to democracy & media credibility

Manoj Kumar Borthakur

The Election Commission of India (ECI) lauds Indian media’s responsible role in nation building. It was media, especially newspapers in India, that led the people emotionally and intellectually to first to oppose and then to banish British Raj. Again in post-independence era, media helped Indian democracy to take roots firmly on its soil, to grow and flourish. But of late, democracy itself is in threat from the same media, especially during elections as the phenomenon called paid news is beginning to corrode the very apparatus of participatory democracy, electoral process, besides corroding the credibility of media itself. Some of the familiar terms used to indicate paid news nowadays are P&P Journalism (parks and package), Access journalism, Suitcase journalism, Exchange journalism, Ad-based jouirnalism, Blackmail journalism, Campaign journalism, Junket journalism, Subsidy journalism and Relative journalism.

Press Council of India, following consultations with Indian Newspapers Society, Indian Language Newspapers Association and journalists bodies decided to demand more powers to tackle paid news. Editors Guild made quite a hue and cry against paid news after the 2009 Andhra Pradesh elections. Noted journalists late Kuldeep Nayar, Ajit Bhatacharjee, Harivansh Narayan Sing ,BG Vergeese, and members of various organizations put pressure on the PCI to act decisively against the harmful practice. Journalist Prabash Joshi and Palagummi Sainath wrote vigorously against paid news in Indian media. A team headed by Rajdeep Sardesai met the then Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chowla to take strong action against candidates and media persons who indulge in violating norms and media ethics.

It is under this circumstance, ECI resolved to curb the serious electoral malpractice ‘paid news’. The ECI feels paid news not only violates the sanctity of freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19 (1)of the Constitution but also poses a serious threat to our parliamentary democracy by unjustly furthering electoral prospects of certain candidates and ruining others in the contest. Paid news, according to Press Council of India, is –“Any news or analysis appearing in any media (print and electronic) for a price in cash or kind as consideration.” It is a systematic engagement of media outlets to publish favourable news items, articles and biased converges in private TV channels in exchange for money. Biased coverage and focusing more on issues with vested interests, advertisements camouflaged as news favouring select candidates while denying coverage to some others are common practices in the media world. The ECI proposed to the Government of India to amend the Representation of the People’s Act,1951 related to conduct of elections to the Parliament and the Assemblies, qualifications and disqualifications for membership of these Houses, corrupt practices and other offences in connection with elections. It insists incorporation of paid news as an electoral offence and punishable for a minimum of two years of imprisonment.

Press Council of India constituted a twelve-member drafting committee to prepare a final report on the findings of select committee on the phenomenon of election time Paid news.

The Press Council of India made a series of suggestions and guidelines for the media; inter alia, (a) objective reporting about elections and the candidates, (b) eschewing news reports which tend to promote enmity and hatred among the people on grounds of caste, creed, religion, community or language, (c) refraining from publishing false or critical statements regarding personal character and conduct of any candidate, (d) refraining from accepting any kind of inducement in cash or kind to project a candidate or party, (e) not indulging in canvassing for a particular candidate or party, (f) the press shall not accept or publish any advertisement at the cost of public exchequer and (g) the press shall observe the directions/orders/instructions of the ECI.

The Election Commission detected hundreds of cases of paid news till date. Ashok Chavan, former Maharashtra Chief Minister, was questioned by the ECI in 2010 allegedly for funding publication of news items camouflaged as advertisements praising him prior to 2009 Assembly elections in the State and for not showing his election expenditure properly. One person Deepok Chourasia was accused of being a promoter of paid news and 1,400 cases of paid news were identified during elections held between 2009 and 2013. Big and reputed media houses have also been put under the scanner by the ECI and Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd, owner of The Times of India, has also been criticized by many allegedly “for dismantling the walls between newsroom and sales department”. The Election Commission detected 313 cases of paid news in Assembly elections in four states – Haryana, J&K, Jharkhand and Delhi in 2014. The commission served 3,053 notices and 694 of which were found to be genuine by the MCMC during parliamentary elections the same year.

Another serious hurdle to healthy journalism in the state today is that the media houses are owned by big political leaders and business men who use them to gains political advantages and money. Some turn their media house into a propaganda machine. The electronic media can be more dangerous while it chooses to go biased. Unfortunately, we have observed that some news channels broadcasting in regional languages in Assam are blatantly biased. For instance, in the run-up to the coming April 11 Parliamentary Elections in the State ,some news channels have been adopting an angle of coverage which is diagonally opposite of some others owned by rival political party leaders to the utter confusion of viewers who are not adept in reading between the lines.

The ECI in its ‘Compendium of Instructions on Paid News and Other Matters’ ( 2015), has issued guidelines to the State Election Commissioners and District Returning Officers to constitute Media Certification and Monitoring Committees ( MCMC) to monitor published matters related to contestants in poll battles for Paid News. MCMC at the district-level will monitor all news publications, TV , radio and local channels including FM radio for suspected paid news and advertisement of political nature. It will report it to the Returning Officer and the Election Observer (Expenditure) on day-to-day basis once the election is declared. When MCMC confirms that if a news matter, news bulletin or an advertisement falls into that category, that should be sent to the Expenditure Accounting Cell for fixing the amount to be recoded in shadow registrar against the concerning candidate. The Returning Officer sends notices to the concerning candidate within 24 hours asking him/her as to why the particular news matter or advertisement be not considered a paid news and the expenses included against him in the shadow register. The candidate, if not satisfied with the decision, may appeal to the State-level MCMC within 48 hours of receiving the notice. The State-level committee is to examines the cases within 96 hours of receipt of appeal and report back to the Returning Officer concerned to issue notice to the candidate. The candidate may appeal to the ECI within 48 hours of receiving the decision of the state committee. The decision of the ECI is final in this regard.