Author: Nicola Smith
Publication: Wearethebest.wordpress.com
Date: February 23, 2011
URL: http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/tag/the-sunday-times/
The Indian government has condemned a rise
in so-called "paid news", in which newspapers and television channels
accept money to run favourable articles about politicians, companies and celebrities.
The move by Ambika Soni, the broadcasting
minister, follows a damaging report commissioned by the Press Council of India,
which revealed that the practise of playing for positive coverage in the Indian
media was widespread.
Soni, who proposed a new body to regulate
broadcasting, said the phenomenon was undermining the credibility of new reports.
"The paid news issue does not crop up during the elections but at other
times as well," she said.
The Press Council report criticised newspapers
and broadcasters that demand money from politicians to run sympathetic stories
about them. It said some papers misrepresent paid-for advertising as news
and enter "private treaties" with companies that guarantee favourable
coverage in exchange for free shares.
The report quoted a long list of politicians
who disclosed that newspaper had asked them to pay large sums to write about
their campaigns during state elections in 2009.
Harmohan Dhawan, a former aviation minister,
was told that if he wanted coverage, he would have to pay two local newspapers,
Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar, up to one million rupees (£13,600)
each.
"Representatives of the print medium
came to me and asked for money. They said their newspapers (would) give coverage
if I paid them money. They offered a 'package' to me and in one such package
I was told editorials would be written in my favour," he said.
The story was echoed by Santosh Singh, a candidate
for the ruling Congress party in Uttar Pradesh, who said he had been offered
packages costing up to one million rupees by the Dainik Jagran and Aaj newspapers.
"The representatives of these newspapers
who me said they were merely following orders given to them by their managements,"
he said.
The Press Council report also highlighted
the role of Medianet, a company created Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, which
publishes The Times of India, The Economic Times and a range of other leading
titles.
Medianet, for a price, openly offers to send
journalists to cover launches or personality-related events, or arranges "news
stories" based on a particular product to appear in the newspaper supplements.
A Sunday Times reporter telephoned Medianet
last week posing as the public relations agent of a company wanting coverage
for a party at Emporio, an exclusive shopping mall in Delhi.
Chandru Sambasivan, the head of Medianet's
Delhi office, said space could be bought in the Delhi Times supplement, the
Times 'society pages, for £27 a centimetre on the front page, of £16
inside.
He said it could "definitely" be
dressed up as a genuine news story, as along it met a "celebrity quotient".
Celebrities were available to attend the event at an extra cost, he said.
"Once you are able to share it (the launch
product) with us, we could always build a story around it and make an interesting
article for the readers," he said. "Basically, if you are looking
at a launch, then it can go on 'launch pad', on page 3 of Delhi Times."
Sambasivan confirmed that the latest launch
pad feature, in which Katrina Kaif, the Bollywood star, promoted Uni-ball
pens, had been paid for by a marketing company. The article, which has no
writer's name attached, does not make clear that it was sponsored.
In it, Kaif, 26, gushed: "I'm excited
about being the face of a youthful, high-quality, international brand, which
I have personally grown up with in the UK; and I particularly love Uni-Jetstream,
which I think is the smoothest pen in the world."
Ravi Dhariwal, the chief executive of The
Times of India, said yesterday: "There is no paid in news in any of our
main papers and titles. We do have advertising and promotional supplements
which sometimes carry paid features."
The practice of "paid news" has
been widely criticised.
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, one of the authors
of Press Council report, said adverts posing as new were "cheating"
readers.
