“The menace of paid news is spreading its tentacles, and it is the collective responsibility of the Press Council of India (PCI), media houses and other stakeholders to curb it. Whether paid news is a civil offence or a criminal one, it should be thoroughly deliberated before appropriate penal provisions are stipulated,” PCI Chairman Justice C.K. Prasad has said.
Addressing a seminar on ‘Money power in elections – Role of media’, organised by the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) here on Saturday, Mr. Prasad said paid news was not just an election-time phenomenon. He added that not only politicians and businessmen were resorting to the dubious practice but celebrities also were bent on promoting personal interests.
“I don’t hesitate to say that the failure of editors to maintain editorial independence was partly responsible for paid news creeping into the media. It was, of course, a part of the larger picture of the affluent sections getting into what has become media business,” he observed.
“Contractual employment has created a separate category of journalists who look to dubious means of earning money for their own survival, while the managements exploit them for their business interests. Ultimately, journalists end up being victims of this harmful trend that has acquired serious dimensions,” he added.
Justice Prasad said there was also a fall in the number of professional editors who could stand up to the values of the Fourth Estate. “An irresponsible press may be good or bad, but a controlled press will always be bad,” he said in defence of the PCI’s primary function, which, according to him, was not to control the media but preserve its freedom. “There is no straightjacket formula for regulating paid news, but a mechanism has to be devised by the Election Commission of India, the PCI and media houses to check the menace if the foundations of democracy are to be protected,” Justice Prasad added. PCI members K. Amarnath and Prabhat Kumar Dash, Indian Journalists Union president S.N. Sinha and secretary-general D. Amar and APUWJ president D. Somasundar were present.
I don’t hesitate to say that the failure of editors to maintain editorial independence was partly responsible for paid news creeping into the media.
Justice C.K. Prasad,
PCI Chairman
