The Media Certification and Monitoring Committee has concluded that two reports aired by two news channels were instances of “paid news” and directed officials to treat them as advertisements and credit the expense against Congress candidate from Mangalore South J.R. Lobo.
The committee’s chairperson and Deputy Commissioner Harsha Gupta said the committee had issued notices to Mr. Lobo and a private local channel following telecast of a clipping related to his campaign. Another local channel telecast an interview with Mr. Lobo. After receiving explanations from Mr. Lobo and representatives of the two private channels, the committee concluded that the two cases were instances of “paid news”. The committee had issued notices suspecting paid news in seven instances of telecast by private channels.
Inquiry is being conducted on the complaint by Moodibidri MLA Abhayachandra Jain against a local newspaper accusing it of publishing a defamatory article, Mr. Gupta said..
