The election commission of India likes to pretend that it came to know of the phenomenon of “paid news”—advertisements being slipped in under the garb of news to circumvent expenditure norms— only after recent reports of its widespread use during the 2009 recent general elections.
Well, here’s more news for the EC.
A journalist with Citizen Matters, a civic awareness magazine published from Bangalore, writes that she was offered money to write about candidates from three mainstream political parties contesting elections to the civic body in India’s IT capital.
Vaishnavi Vittal writes that an aide of a first-time candidate in ward no. 177 (J.P. Nagar) tried to slip her a bunch of 100-rupee notes neatly folded in his palm. “Nimma expenditurege (for your expenditure), madam”, he said sheepishly. Less than an hour later, in the same ward, another candidate pulled out wads of 500-rupee notes from his pocket and asked me, “Hana yenadaru kodabeka? (Should we pay you any money?)”
“A similar incident occurred with a party candidate contesting from Sarakki (Ward 178). After the interview, the candidate’s spouse and campaign coordinator repeatedly asked me if they need to pay me for the interview. They went on to add, laughing all the while, that they are ready to pay money even if we don’t ask for it.
“The two of them gave me a copy of a local Kannada publication in which there were several reports, profiling some of the candidates. They told me that they had paid for a report on their party candidate on the front page.”
Read the full article: Cash for coverage comes to BBMP elections too
Link via Kanchar Kaur-Hariharan
Complete coverage: Editors’ Guild on paid news, private treaties
Pyramid Saimira, Tatva & Times Private Treaties
Times Private Treaties gets a very public airing
SUCHETA DALAL: Forget the news, you can’t believe the ads either
Does he who pays the piper call the tune?
SALIL TRIPATHI: The first casualty of a cosy deal is credibility
Selling the soul? Or sustaining the business?
PAUL BECKETT: Indian media holding Indian democracy ransom
Does he who pays the piper call the tune?
PRATAP BHANU MEHTA: ‘Indian media in deeply murky ethical territory’
The scoreline: Different strokes for different folks
A package deal that’s well worth a second look
ADITYA NIGAM: ‘Editors, senior journalists must declare assets’
The brave last words of Prabhash Joshi
‘Only the weather section isn’t sold these days’
It takes 3 Idiots to call the bluff of Pauper Tigers
If you trust polls, trust in Indian media dips
Tags: Aditya Nigam, BBMP Elections, Churumuri, Election Commission, Journalism for Sale, Medianet, Paid News, Paid-For News, Paul Beckett, Prabhash Joshi, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Private Treaties, Sans Serif, Sucheta Dalal
24 March 2010 at 5:41 pm
A great trend!!! A real trickledown effect……
We know that there are grassroots versions of single malt, Mont blanc, Vertus, foreign jaunts, padmashri, Rajya sabha seat, etc., for local journalists.
****
Vaishanvi Vittal, there goes your journalism career :))
24 March 2010 at 7:59 pm
I know a case where the candidate was offered an interview in a local newspaper and a TV channel for 50k. If that is surprising to anybody its just that they hadn’t heard about it yet. Almost, every thing is up for sale for a price.
If anybody thinks that they are getting enough coverage that way start a news channel/new paper! See AP for eg.
Dailybread,
Another important thing is a BDA site … BDA colony. The same is true even the for the judges. Was wondering if there is a chance for the IT Pros, some thing like “Software Colony” :)!
25 March 2010 at 12:34 pm
Anotherone,
Have you seen the kind of ads English news channels are broadcasting during this IPL season (especially when there is a live match going on)? GoI is the main (or onlly) advertiser on these channels when matches are on and IMO GoI is using tax payers money to compensate news channels for loss of revenue. What happened to target audience, bang for the bucks, etc.?