PRASHANT JHA
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.
The practice, according
to the committee, assumed different forms — gifts, sponsored travels, direct or
indirect payment of money, indirect blackmailing by media houses and,
increasingly, award ceremonies by media houses where regular advertisers are
awarded. The parliamentary panel warned that this would assume “gigantic
proportions” if not tackled immediately.
In a strong indictment of
the I&B Ministry, the panel said it was “disconcerting” that the Ministry
had not done “anything substantial” to check the “menace” of paid news, and
demanded action in the next six months.
The Ministry should take
steps to ensure there was a “clear demarcation” between what constituted
advertisements and what, news. While accepting that it was difficult to
establish violations because of clandestine transactions, the committee urged
the Ministry to put forward innovative solutions to consider and establish
“circumstantial evidence”. It also recommended that a team of experts be set up
to track the coverage pattern and that the regulatory body swing into action in
case of any “unusualness”.
The committee also noted
the “pathetic working conditions” of significant sections in the media,
disapproved of the media’s tendency to “hire and fire”, and noted that the
contract employment should not be used for “attraction and allurement”.
On the ‘Jindal versus
Zee’ case, the committee deplored the Ministry’s “indecisiveness” and urged it
to take immediate action based on the recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial
Committee.
But in its most
controversial remarks, the committee has dismissed self-regulation as “an
eyewash”, and recommended that a statutory body such as the Media Council be
set up to look at “media contents in both print and electronic media” with
powers to take “strong actions”. Alternatively, the Press Council could be
revamped in case of print journalism and a separate statutory body be set for
the electronic media. It called for strengthening election laws and empowering
the Election Commission and asked the I&B Ministry to act swiftly on issues
of cross-media ownership.
Responding to the
criticism, I&B Minister Manish Tewari told The Hindu:
“I have not seen the report yet, but we hold the observations of the Standing
Committee in high esteem. We will peruse it closely, identify what is
actionable, and build a broad-based consensus to implement the actionable
points.”
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