Congress goes buying reporters in Chhattisgarh, offers ours Rs 25,000
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Ashutosh Bhardwaj , Ashutosh Bhardwaj : Raipur, Sat Dec 14 2013, 10:15 hrs
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After the Congress rout in Assembly polls in the four heartland states, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi spoke about reforming the party in ways that cannot be imagined. He could well start his mission from Chhattisgarh. During the election campaign as well as in the days before votes were counted and results declared, the state unit of the Congress offered cash "gifts" ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 to about 100 journalists based in Raipur saying it was from the "party election fund".
The Indian Express reporter was among those offered the cash, on December 6, two days before the results.
The novel, if not unprecedented, move was not a clandestine operation but one that was apparently fully approved by the party.
It was handled by a new media cell set up just before the elections to "manage journalists", at a time the media, the Election Commission and political parties have been grappling with the problem of paid news.
The cell, headed by state Congress general secretary and ex-MLA Ramesh Warlyani, made a list of Raipur-based journalists and earmarked amounts for each of them. Warlyani, who is said to be close to AICC treasurer Moti Lal Vora, is believed to have got funds from the party and offered it to the journalists.
[8-http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/congress-goes-buying-reporters-in-chhattisgar h-offers-ours-rs-25000/1207579/0]
But the document, submitted to the Lok Sabha on May 6, 2013, generated little media coverage. Here's one of the few reports:
8 May 2013: The Hindu - I&B Ministry has done little to curb paid news: parliamentary panel
I&B Ministry has done little to curb paid news: parliamentary panel
Prashant Jha NEW DELHI:, MAY 08, 2013 02:29 IST UPDATED: JUNE 13, 2016 13:22 IST
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The standing committee bats for content regulation by empowered mechanism
In a comprehensive 100-page report covering issues across the print and electronic media landscape, a parliamentary standing committee has documented the trend of ‘paid news’ in its various forms and recommended content regulation by an empowered mechanism. It has also strongly criticised the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) for “failing to discharge its responsibility”.
The Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) began examining the issue of ‘paid news’ in 2010. Three years later, it has concluded that the “dangerous trend of presenting [paid-for] information as news content” has spread at a remarkable pace in sections of the media. ‘Paid news’ has had a “serious and damaging impact” on innocent audiences; undermines democratic practices; affects markets, industry and health; is a tax fraud; and a question of ethics.
First noticed in the 2004 general elections, the practice of ‘paid news’ became more widespread in 2009. During the 2012 Gujarat elections, a Press Council of India sub-committee found 444 suspected cases of ‘paid news’, with 61 candidates admitting they had paid up. The committee said it was not merely an “election-time phenomenon”, but “everyday and prolific”, and went beyond the corruption of individual journalists.
[https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ib-ministry-has-done-little-to-curp-paid-news-p arliamentary-panel/article4693362.ece]
The committee report, noting the issue of paid news has been a feature of the media landscape since the 2009 national election, said it was "astonishing that a large section of the media is completely silent on this malpractice".