President Abraham Lincoln's definition of democracy is the best and
the simplest - government of the people, by the people and for the
people. But democracy needs not merely periodic elections , it
requires informed electorate who can choose their representatives from
among the candidates based on their principles and programmes, their
activities and contribution to the public affairs. All this
information reaches the electorate through newspapers and, now,
through television which reaches even the remotest village in India.
Its pivotal role in democracy has been summed up by the veteran
journalist B.G..Verghese in a few words : " The media is not the
fourth state any more, it's the first estate. The media has become
all-powerful."
The great Socialist and Sarvodaya leader Lok Nayak Jaya Prakasha
Narayan had said years ago that the elections are the Gangotri (
source ) of black money in India. Now it has polluted the source of
news and information which are the basic requirement for the proper
choice of representatives by the electorate. Politicians all over the
world have used the media to promote themselves in many ways,
especially with the time-honoured device of supprecio veri (
suppression of truth )and sugestio falsi ( suggestion of falsehood).
The 'paid news" – presenting advertisment as news to gain credibility
- is the ultimate in this category. Now the challenge is, how do we
get out of this chakravuha, the intricate web of money which can
distort people's will ?
Discovery of 'paid news'.
The credit for highlighting this new malady of our body politic should
go to the intrepid investigative journalist P.Sainath of the Hindu,
well-known daily from Chennai,and he has documented the extensive
press coverage of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, and
the very little advertisement cost by him during the recent assembly
election. There were 89 full pages of news on the CM during the
election period in Marathi, Hindi and English dailies across the
state.
Since the "news" was delivered by the candidate or the political party
these items were out of sync with the style of the newspapers and that
gave away the game. This management of news was not confined to him
alone.Other candidates and other parties too resorted to it. The
richer parties and candidates used PR firms and ad agencies to give
these 'news' a better form.
He writes that during the Lok Sabha election media offered low-end "
coverage packages" for Rs.15 lakh to Rs.20 lakh, and the high-end had
a higher cost. One of the state's most important politicians paid an
estimated Rs.1.5 crore to celebrate his 'era' with a special
supplement. No wonder, there are just 6 MLAs out of 288 in the present
Maharashtra Assembly with assets of Rs.50 lakh or less. The number of
crorepatis are now 184, according to an NGO, Association of Democratic
Reforms (ADR).
"Paid news" is all over.
This malaise of 'paid news' is not restricted to Maharashtra only.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh of Haryana candidly told Outlook, a
weekly magazine published from New Delhi, " When I noticed the leading
paper in my state printing baseless reports on the front page day
after day," he said, " I called them up and offered money to print the
right picture. The paper in question apologized. They even returned
the money taken from my rival to publish news items against me."
A top management executive of Punjab Kesri ( Punjabi newspaper with a
readership 1.04 crore) admitted to the correspondent of Outlook,
Anuradha Raman, that the newspaper made between Rs.10 and Rs.12 crore
during the assembly election season. He justified the same with the
statement, " We had to go in for selling editorial space because of
tremendous pressure from politicians. We were also being pushed by the
so-called national English dailies which had their packages and were
mopping up revenue. We could not have missed out on the opportunity."
Parch Kodanda Rama Rao of the Loksatta Party paid Rs.50,000 after he
found Eenadu, the largest newspaper, did not mention his candidature
at all.
"Paid news' in TV.
TV too had its share of the loot. Congress M.P. Sandeep Dikshit was
told by a news channel to pay Rs.2.5 lakh to cover the visit of Rahul
Gandhi to the East Delhi constituency during the 2009 Lok Sabha
election and also promised to" arrange the crowds". And a Hindi daily
made an offer for a positive coverage in print and TV for a
consideration between Rs12 to Rs.20 lakh. And Dikshit observed , " You
watch your opponent misusing the media and you're forced to part with
the money. I won't take names but everyone is involved." Then there is
the case of BJP MP Lalji Tandon who found no mention of his
candidature in the 'largest circulated language daily in the world'.
When he asked for the reason, he was asked to pay up. He did not pay
but won the seat in Lucknow.
"Issueless " Election.
During the 2009 general election, almost all TV channels told their
viewers that the election was "issueless'. In any election, the ruling
party has to highlight its achievements during its five-year term and
the opposition has to highlight its mismanagement.
The UPA government had allotted a huge amount of about Rs.1,75,000
crore for what is called Bharat Nirman ( rural road network, rural
employment, rural employment and rural housing etc.) during its
tenure. DNA – Daily News & Analysis – in its Feb.23, 2009 headline
was, "UPA govt. strike rate – all targets missed ". Another headline
on March 17, 2009, was " Mission Impossible". This was regarding urban
renewal mission which could use only 10 percent of the sanctioned
outlay. We all know how the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement was approved by
the Lok Sabha – with defections, money on the table of the House etc.
Prime Minister was ready to sacrifice his office for this Agreement
which was touted as the solution to the energy problem of India. The
terrorists had a field day in Bengalure, Mumbai, Jaipur, Varanasi and
Delhi. These were not the issues at all, according to media.
The media highlighted some stray remarks of Varun Gandhi and the PM's
question to Advani about Kandahar. George Bernard Shaw is right when
he said that 'Newspapers are unable, seemingly to discriminate
between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization'.
Same thing happened during the Maharshtra Assembly election.
Congress-NCP government had no achievement to its credit. Farmers
continued to commit suicide in Vidarbha ; Electricity cuts continued
in the state; Adivasis died of hunger and mal-nutrition. Terrorists
killed people and destroyed property in Taj, Trident and in the prayer
house of Jews in Mumbai for about 36 hours. It exposed how the Central
and State governments were unprepared to face such acts – intelligence
failure, police inadequacy, response time etc. These did not become
issues in the election, thanks to the media..
.
It all started with commercial advertisements.
Two recent articles in the Indian Express, throw more light on this
sordid issue - "News, Sponsored " ( December 6, 2009) Commercial Break
( December 13,2009) both by Archana Shukla.
It all started with commercial advertisement in the media. While the
print media have advertorial ( advertisement in the guise of
editorial), television introduced branded content ( advertiser-funded
programmes). The packages offered are : Organising events for
advertisers; Holding panel discussions with the advertiser's own
anchors moderating shows in its network as well as in media partner
platforms; Carving out editorial programmes from such events and
running them on their own channels; Promoting these events across
their channels. One senior editor of a news channel said that 20
percent of her channel is funded by the advertisers while the rivals
have 30/40 percent of such shows. All the major channels are in this
game.
Some media owners have come up with another stratagem called 'private
treaties'. Those companies and advertisers who could not afford
expensive advertising costs, the media gets equity stakes in their
companies.
Malady and remedy.
Now this game has been extended to politics and elections. Before this
corruption corrodes our body politic, we have to find a remedy to this
malady.
It appears that too much dependence of TV channels on advertising
revenue is one of the causes of this phenomenon. Barun Das, CEO of Zee
News told Archana Shukla that globally 70 percent of broadcast
revenues come from subscriptions while Indian broadcaster gets less
than 20 percent of their legitimate income because of the under
declaration by the cable operators. Since advertising is the main
source of income, broadcasters are trying to tap all possible sources
of revenue. Apart from punishing the cable operators for
mis-declaration of their customers, TV subscribers should be educated
to agree to pay more for their favourite channel. Freedom is not free.
Independence of TV channels and newspapers is a pre-requisite for the
dissemination of impartial information.
Secondly, the TV channels and newspapers should be made accountable –
they have to give every candidate an opportunity to present his case
and refute any allegation. There has to be a proper legally empowered
monitoring agency for this purpose Toothless bodies of the media have
proved to be of no value..
Indian journalism, which started as a mission during the freedom
struggle, became a profession after Independence, and now it has
become a pure commercial institution ! It is too valuable an
institution for democracy to be allowed to be taken over by commercial
tycoons.and it has to become more socially and politically
responsible. We have to strive to make it a guardian of our freedom.
There cannot be freedom without a free press.
JP is right.
Writing an op-ed, " Putting paid to 'piad news', in the Indian Express
(Feb.1,2010), Jagdep S.Chhokar, Professor and the former dean of IIM,
Ahmadabad, wonders while there is a clamour by politicians to increase
the ceilings on election expenses, hardly four out of 6753 candidates
of the 2009 Lok Sabha election have exceeded the prescribed limit, and
mildly observes, " Obviously, there is something seriously wrong with
the whole process."
Our MPs and MLAs start their political life with a lie. Jaya Prakash
Narayan is right – corruption starts with the election. The only way
to do away with it is to strengthen the Election Commission – it
should be empowered to monitor every action of the candidates and the
political parties. Chhokar refers to suggestion made by the Law
Commission of India in its 170th report in 1999 wherein it has called
for internal democracy, financial transparency and accountability of
political parties " If democracy and accountability constitute the
core of our constitutional system, the same concepts must also apply
to and bind the political parties which are integral to parliamentary
democracy", it emphsises.
Political parties and the media must be made accountable to people
through the Election Commission and a similar body for the media.
Sooner the better.
March 4,2010.
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