Editors Guild warns EC about 'paid news'

The Editors Guild's on Friday urged the Election Commission to take strong action against both candidates and media persons who violate the disclosure norms of election expenditure to gain media publicity.

A delegation from the guild, led by president Rajdeep Sardesai, submitted a memorandum to the EC, deploring the 'paid news' phenomenon. The memorandum cited several recent investigative reports which highlighted the prevalence of this dangerous practice.

This trend threatened the foundations of journalism by eroding public faith in the credibility and impartiality of news reporting, said Sardesai. It also vitiated the poll process and prevented a fair election, since richer candidates who could pay
for their publicity had a clear advantage, the guild pointed out.

Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla admitted that the EC did not have the mechanism to monitor the candidates in all 543 constituencies, but some random samples could be examined closely.

Reacting to another suggestion from the guild, that the expenditure limit of the candidate be raised to 'a realistic level', he pointed out that the limit was fixed by Parliament.

Election Commissioner S Y Qureshi said that the manner in which the EC handled the complaints against Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who was accused of paying publications for favourable publicity in the recent assembly election, will serve as an example of the EC's commitment to tackle the growing malaise of 'paid news'.

The EC has asked Chavan to file a reply to these accusations by February 1.

He acknowledged that the commission has already received several complaints on the issue of paid news. While some complained that candidates sometimes got blacked out by unscrupulous publications, unless they paid up, others pointed out that affluent candidates could pay the corrupt media to get write-ups in their favour.

Election Commissioner V S Sampath told the guild that the EC would welcome advice on how to deal firmly with the malpractice and suggested that the guild come forward with some concrete suggestions.

The Guild was represented by Sardesai along with senior journalists Coomi Kapoor, Mannini Chatterjee and Seema Chisti.