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Doctor, Heal
Thyself!
WSN Bureau
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One page every day full of news in your favour? Rs Five lakh.
Two pages? Rs eight lakh. Three news items damaging your
opponent every day? Rs 2 lakh. Complete black out of your rival?
Rs 15 lakh. Punjab was rife with talk of “media packages”.
Politicians paid for good publicity, and newspaper owners were
not shy of selling news space. Such “news” which were “paid for”
were actually advertisements but were presented as authentic
news. Now, the attack on the media has come from inside, and is
the best piece of news in a long time. |
|
 Sucha
Singh Langah would hold a little rally in a back of the beyond
village in Gurdaspur’s Dhariwal, but a huge photograph would appear
on the front page of many of Punjab’s language newspapers that would
carry a caption saying “Lokan da thathan-maarda ikathh” (the sea of
teeming masses). Sukhbir Singh Badal will hold a rather impressive
rally in Bathinda with some 30,000 people attending – no mean
achievement – but newspaper reports would authoritatively state the
number as five lakh.
Every single one
of those pictures was actually an advertisement.
People opened
pages of some Punjabi and Hindi newspapers during election campaign
in Punjab only to encounter news items that would leave them
perplexed. Some three pages will be full of news items about how the
Akali candidate was attracting huge crowds, and how it was most
certain that he would win by a huge and record-breaking victory
margin. Then the next two pages will make the prediction in favour
of the Congress candidate with similar degree of certainty.
Media managers
of Congress and Akali Dal did not have to manage much of the media;
they simply negotiated with the proprietors and bought news space.
One page every
day full of news in your favour? Rs Five lakh. Two pages? Rs eight
lakh. Three news items damaging your opponent every day? Rs 2 lakh.
Complete black out of your rival? Rs 15 lakh. “We will attach a
permanent reporter with you to write the news items and send
pictures,” a politician was told by a proprietor.
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What is interesting is that in one case, the same “exclusive
report” appeared in different and rival newspapers with
different bylines, showing that the advertising dolled up as
news stories or ‘paid news’ is getting institutionalised. |
Punjab was rife
with talk of “media packages”. Politicians paid for good publicity,
and newspaper owners were not shy of selling news space. Such “news”
which were “paid for” were actually advertisements but were
presented as authentic news. Even names of journalists were used as
byline. “Don’t worry, we will use the same style and fonts that we
use for our own news,” the candidates were told.
Soon, the trend
spread to other areas and states in India. It was easy also. The
politician did not have to kow-tow to the local stringer or the
pain-in-the-neck journalist who asked difficult and sharp questions;
instead he bribed the owner.
In the recent
elections in India’s western state of Maharashtra, the trend set new
precedents, which also means the newspaper houses earned crores from
selling “media packages.”
 Rumblings
have now started in the media circles which are worried about what
such “paid for” news items and “news pages” look alikes will do to
the reputation of the vocation. On Monday, one of India’s most
celebrated journalists and pride of the vocation, P Sainath, who had
earlier too raised his voice on the issue, launched a frontal
attack, naming not just the Maharashtra Chief Minister who was
clearly guilty of paying for many such news pages, but also named
the media houses that clearly accepted money for such coverage.
Ashok Chavan ,
the Maharashtra Chief Minister, as per records, spent a mere Rs.
5,379 on newspaper advertisements during the recent State Assembly
election. And he spent another Rs.6,000 on cable television ads. P
Sainath, in his lead article in The Hindu, produced proof to show
how these figures were clearly at odds with the unprecedented media
coverage the CM got during the election campaign. He said his
newspaper “The Hindu” gathered 47 full newspaper pages, many of them
in colour, focused exclusively on Chavan, his leadership, his party
and government. “These appeared in large newspapers, including one
ranking amongst
India’s
highest circulation dailies. However, they were not marked as
advertisements,” Sainath wrote.
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The much praised Election Commission of India has badly let down
the people since it was difficult to ignore pages and pages of
surrogate advertising, or ads masquerading as news. Most likely,
the Election Commission, the civil society, the politicians with
a better sense of propriety, the media loudmouths who claim to
spot and criticize every wrong in society and politics, knew
what was going on. They all remained silent. |
By his own
account, candidate Chavan spent less than Rs. 7 lakh on his election
campaign overall during the Assembly polls. The spending limit
imposed on contestants is Rs. 10 lakh. Section 77 of India’s
Representation of the People Act, 1951 stipulates that candidates
must submit their campaign expenses accounts to the district
election officer within 30 days of the declaration of results.
Chavan did so but did not mention a word about any such huge ads. He
won the Bhokar Assembly seat of
Maharashtra’s
Nanded district against an independent candidate by a margin of over
one lakh votes.
The astonishing
media coverage which was clearly “paid for” and was certainly not
news as it was projected would have cost crores of rupees.
There was a
flood of full pages on Chavan and his party, hailing this as the
“Era of Ashok,” and the “Era of Development.” Such pages ran in
Marathi newspapers like Lokmat which is the fourth largest daily in
the country and the top-circulated one in Maharashtra.
What is
interesting is that in one case, the same “exclusive report”
appeared in different and rival newspapers with different bylines,
showing that the advertising dolled up as news stories or ‘paid
news’ is getting institutionalised.
 The
same story on Ashok Chavan appeared in three rival dailies word for
word (only the headline differed in one). It was bylined in Pudhari,
attributed to “Special Correspodent” in Lokmat, and went without a
byline in the Maharashtra Times. Nowhere does the word advertisement
figure alongside these ‘news’ stories.
In Sainath’s own
words: “Young dynamic leadership: Ashokrao Chavan,” read the
headline of a prominent news item in the Marathi daily Lokmat
(October 10). That was 72 hours before the people of Maharashtra
went to vote in the State Assembly polls. The item was attributed to
the newspaper’s “Special Correspondent,” making it clear this was a
news story. The story showered praise on the Chief Minister of
Maharashtra for having achieved so much for so many in so few
months. The same story also appeared word for word the same day in
the Maharashtra Times, a leading and rival Marathi daily. Two minds
with but a single thought? Two hearts that beat as one?
A cute and
comforting thought. Except that the very same story (again word for
word, only with a different headline) had appeared three days
earlier in the Marathi daily Pudhari (October 7). In that case, with
a reporter’s name at the bottom of the item.
In the
Maharashtra Times, the piece ran without a byline. But again, as a
news story. There is no mention of the word advertisement or
sponsored feature next to the item in any of the newspapers. And
unless the bylined reporter of Pudhari moonlights as” Special
Correspondent” for Lokmat, while also being a ghost-writer for the
Maharashtra Times, the appearance of the same piece verbatim in the
three rival newspapers does seem odd. But maybe not so odd? Mr.
Chavan seems to have gained greatly from what is now called ‘package
journalism’ or ‘coverage packages.’
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The hunt will also bring out other forms of corruption in the
media. Many state governments have formed a policy of setting up
some kind of a media consultancy group and they employ senior
retired mediamen and pay them huge salaries for completely
undefined work. Punjab is not far from adopting the Haryana
model. |
The 47 pages
that the newspaper spoke about are barely a third of those actually
published in that period. The pattern seems to have been set with a
launch on September 12 of a four-page colour supplement titled Ashok
parv (The Era of Ashok). And then followed up with a full page
almost every day in October till voting day (October 13) titled
“Vikas parv” or The Era of Development. The Vikas parv pages, too,
are centred on Mr. Chavan. And, of course, the achievements of
Maharashtra under the Congress.
Clearly, this
flood of ‘news’ paid off. Chavan won the Bhokar Assembly seat of
Maharashtra’s Nanded district by defeating independent candidate
Madhavrao Kinhalkar by a margin of over one lakh (120,849 against
13,346) votes.
In strict terms,
the unprecedented coverage the Chief Minister received during the
poll campaign cannot be called advertising. Just as the photographs
of Sucha Singh Langah rallies or those of Sukhbir’s were not news.
None of those
full pages bears that word. And his “day to day accounts of election
expenditures” do not reflect any real spending on ads. All
candidates are required by law to submit their campaign expenses
accounts to the district election officer within 30 days of the
declaration of results. Mr. Chavan’s accounts, which are in The
Hindu’s possession thanks to an RTI application to which the
appropriate authorities responded with commendable speed, claim a
total expenditure of just Rs. 11,379 on advertising. Indeed, he had
a mere six advertisements in print and these cost a trifling Rs.
5,379. (The rest was spent on slots on cable television.) Moreover,
all his print ads went to a single newspaper, Satyaprabha. That is a
small daily in the district of Nanded. Yet Mr. Chavan was the focus
of scores of full pages in very major dailies. If those had been
ads, they would have cost crores of rupees. More so given the large
newspapers they featured in.
.jpg) Lokmat
is a very popular Marathi daily newspaper. It ranks as the 4th
largest circulated daily in India while being numero uno in
Maharashtra, with more than ten million readers (NRS 2006). The
Maharashtra Times is no small-town sheet either. It too has millions
of readers and is part of India’s largest newspaper group. If
Indian-language papers ran most of such ‘news,’ that was mainly
because they were the preferred platform to reach voters during
election time.
At market rates,
say industry insiders, placing a four-page colour supplement in all
13 editions of a newspaper like Lokmat could cost an advertiser
between Rs. 1.5 crore and 2 crore. “Also,” says an executive who has
worked in this field, “this was election time. It comes once in five
years. Forget about discounts, the rates climb higher in a seller’s
market.” But never mind the supplements. The pages titled Vikas parv
ran very frequently in Lokmat in October till almost voting day.
The cost of
these alone, if they were advertising, would have been hugely above
the election expenditure limit. Of course there could have been, as
the executive concedes, special deals struck between the advertiser
and the newspaper. (Incidentally, a member of the family owning
Lokmat, Congress MLA Rajendra Darda, has joined the Ashok Chavan
Ministry with full cabinet rank. He was a Minister of State in the
earlier government. His website describes him as Vice Chairman &
Joint Managing Director. It also calls him “a driving force behind
Lokmat’s success for the last 35 years.”)
Some
enterprising dailies handled their ‘paid news’ differently. They
required each ‘advertiser’ to buy thousands of copies of the paper.
That way, they made their money, while showing higher sale numbers.
Crucially, not a single newspaper carrying this kind of material
runs the word advertisement with such ‘news’ items. The post-poll
period has seen some debate over what is now called the ‘paid news’
industry. Many believe that this time the news media went further
than ever before in passing off advertising as news. And that the
practice has moved from petty corruption of a few journalists to a
media-run game worth hundreds of millions of rupees.
 Govind
Talwalkar, a distinguished leader of Marathi journalism, now
retired, is amongst those deeply upset. He called this “a perfect
case for a CBI inquiry...Never in such a long career have I found
journalism reduced to such a degrading and reprehensible state.”
Talwalkar, who was active in the profession for over 50 years, was
quoted by Sainath in his article.
Clearly, the
much praised Election Commission of India has badly let down the
people since it was difficult to ignore pages and pages of surrogate
advertising, or ads masquerading as news. Most likely, the Election
Commission, the civil society, the politicians with a better sense
of propriety, the media loudmouths who claim to spot and criticize
every wrong in society and politics, knew what was going on.
They all
remained silent. In this conspiracy of silence, Ashok Parv was being
celebrated and democratic notions were murdered. They are all
witnesses.
In Punjab, at
one stage, both Punjab Kesri and Ajit newspapers were guilty of
being part of the trend, though in all fairness, initially, the word
“ADVT” would appear in fine print at the end of the so-called “news
item”. Similarly, the paid for photographs on page one and elsewhere
used to be tagged with a finely printed almost invisible “Advt” or
in Punjabi “Ishtihar” in some corner. At least, the newspaper was
keen to avoid being called out and blamed for misleading the readers
though largely that was what was happening.
Of late, even
this practice seems to have degenerated into straight sale of news
pages. Thankfully, some better quality newspapers have stayed away
after a few mistakes, but many are making hay. Among these are also
certain Hindi language newspapers that came to Punjab only a few
years ago.
It was at a
function in Chandigarh when L K Advani took up the issue on the
occasion of the release of a book written by Balramji Das Tandon’s
son. He clearly said newspapers were selling news pages. It was
shocking that while the media duly reported the comments, the issue
did not explode on the front pages of newspapers. Not even on the
front pages of those who had not chosen this pernicious method to
sell their soul.
For the evil to
succeed, all that is required is for the good people to do nothing.
They dutifully did nothing.
Now, it is time
that the Indian media takes immediate and visible steps to retrieve
whatever is left from this bad situation. It should force the guilty
newspapers to concede that the pages were indeed advertisements.
These newspapers should publish the fact on their front pages, along
with details of who paid for them and how much, and what means.
These amounts should be included in the election expenses.
But if it was
advertising, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra is in a spot, as will
be many, many other politicians.
The hunt will
also bring out other forms of corruption in the media. Many state
governments have formed a policy of setting up some kind of a media
consultancy group and they employ senior retired mediamen and pay
them huge salaries for completely undefined work. Haryana is one
such example. These journalists then act as the eyes and ears of the
politicians among the scribes and carry tales from one end to the
other, hog significant positions in institutions like the press
clubs or Assembly media gallery, plant questions at press
conferences and try to influence journalists.
Now, Punjab is
not far from adopting the Haryana model. Every few weeks, Sukhbir
Singh Badal dangles the carrot of housing societies, free insurance,
free travel passes, toll tax exemptions for journalists. Why do
journalists need such freebies when they are never tired of
criticizing the freebies being doled out to the poor and the most
deprived?
Because there is
a difference between the deprived and the depraved. Unfortunately,
the journalists fit in the wrong category between the two. Still,
more unfortunately, their idea of which is the wrong category
between the two is too hazy for them to understand the difference
between news pages and advertisement pages.
And it is this
heady mix that will give an extremely bad name to journalism. In
Punjab, it lost respect because of the way newspapers sold out. In
Maharashtra, the story was repeated. This is perhaps the last chance
to save face. Will the quills scribble the right words?
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Some did
speak out
.jpg) News
space was blatantly on sale in the run up to the last Lok Sabha
elections. Newspapers had fixed the rates for interviews with
candidates, coverage of their rallies, reports on constituency
tours and denunciation of rivals. Apart from a la carte offers
there were package deals as well. Prabhash Joshi, the editor of
Jansatta who died only recently, had the audience by their
eyeballs and eardrums as he gave instances of paid election
coverage masquerading as news in Hindi papers.
Joshi was
speaking at a debate, Blurring the Line Between News and Ads
organized by the Foundation for Media Professionals and
moderated by veteran journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. FMP has
been set up by some senior journalists to promote quality
journalism and uphold media freedom.
Hindi
newspapers are not the only ones at fault. Outlook Editor
Krishna Prasad said during the Lok Sabha election campaign a
prominent English paper in Mumbai had instructed reporters to
introduce the accompanying sales people to the politicians they
interviewed. (If TV news channels were not cited during the
debate it is not because they were innocent of the practice.
Rather no one in the panel articulated such instances.)
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Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was most
surprised when the report of an election rally that he had
read was published a few days later in the same newspaper as
a box item on the front page with borders in colour. A
perplexed Hooda called up the proprietor who told him that
the item was paid advertising! |
Some
politicians indeed protested at the practice. Lalji Tandon,
former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s protégé, revealed
that he was told to pay for coverage by the very newspapers that
would earlier seek him out for quotes and comments. Harmohan
Dhawan, former union minister and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Lok
Sabha candidate from Chandigarh (he lost), Atul Kumar Singh
Anjan, contesting from Ghosi (UP) on a Communist Party of India
ticket (he lost) and Mohan Singh, the Samajwadi Party nominee
from Deoria (he lost) were also subjected to such media greed.
Haryana Chief
Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was most surprised when the
report of an election rally that he had read was published a few
days later in the same newspaper as a box item on the front page
with borders in colour. A perplexed Hooda called up the
proprietor who told him that the item was paid advertising!
Advertisers
have always tried to break the wall between editorial and
marketing. The difference now is that media owners have joined
in. They see news as a product, like any other. But if that were
the case, media would not have been vested with influence and
the watchdog function. The business of news should not be
divorced from ethics. Advertisers will find it pointless to
penetrate editorial if it can be easily contaminated. Innovation
in the grab for eyeballs should not compromise the integrity of
news. Restraint is necessary.
Former stock
market regulator M Damodaran said he had mooted a proposal
requiring media organizations to declare their vested interest
in news reports they publish. He came up against the wall of
‘media freedom.’ But private treaties are a small part of the
problem.
Krishna Prasad
cited a Bangalore English newspaper whose recent promised
serialized expose of an expressway failed to show up after the
first piece. The price of the suppression: Rs 3 crore in
advertising! |
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2
December 2009
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