By Girish Nikam

After the last general elections in May 2009, a hue and cry was raised in the media, by both politicians and some media persons themselves, about the pernicious phenomenon of “paid news”. Even as late as last week, during the Ramnath Goenka awards ceremony, the Indian Express which organizes these awards had a panel discussion on the issue, with some of the big wigs of the media industry participating in it.

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There has been unanimity about how this phenomenon can undermine the entire democratic process, apart from killing the credibility of the media itself. The Journalists and their organizations have held several such introspective seminars, discussions and workshops but have generally been unable to come out with any workable solution to this dangerous phenomenon.
It was under these circumstances that the Press Council of India had early this year set up a committee of two persons, veteran Journalists, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and K.Sreenivasa Reddy to look into the issue and present a report.
After much painstaking work, the two journalists came out with a 72-page report in April, this year, and presented it to the PCI. The report had damning evidence of how this insidious system works and which were all the media organizations which had practiced it, during the elections and also otherwise.
The report presents in detail  how many media organizations, including the biggest groups like Times of India, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Eenadu, Andhra Jyoti, Hindustan, Vaarta, Andhra Bhoomi, Gujarat Samachar, Punjab Kesri,  Lokmat,  Aaj, TV channels like  Aaj Tak, ETV, TV-9, TV 5, HMTV, had indulged in this practice. People who had been approached by these organizations to get their news published for a price during the elections have been quoted in this report.
The report also talks of the “private treaties” of some of the media organizations with private companies, and how their products have been promoted in the form of editorial content. The report points to such instances in Times of India and Economic Times and also on the CNN-IBN TV channel.
Obviously the report set the cat among the pigeons in the Press Council of India. The Chairman Justice G.N.Ray, was besieged by demands from among the members of the Council, which includes some very respected journalists, not to make public this report. The Council did what is an old practice to bury such a report. It appointed a committee to look into the report!
And after three months, what we now hear is that the final report which has come out of the Council is much doctored and much tempered down , sans the names of the media organizations, but with a lot of homilies which we have been hearing for a long time.
As P.Sainath, of The Hindu, writes in his newspaper today (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/article551851.ece) , an historic opportunity has been lost.  He laments about how this was an occasion to clean the Augean stables, but the Council has resorted to subterfuge, and has decided to bury its own two-man body’s report.
This columnist shares the views of Sainath entirely, especially having written about this practice as far back as 2007, when this phenomenon was noticed in Gujarat, during the Assembly elections there.
Since it is important for us as a democracy and also for the media to be transparent about itself, we have decided to put the entire 72- page report of the Thakurta-Reddy committee on public view, as Sainath has also suggested.
It is upto the people to judge the report on its contents and make their own judgements, since the Press Council of India, has only again sadly proved to be a toothless body, as it has always been perceived as.
—ends.

(p.s: The emphasis in the report in bold letters are ours, and not that of the committee)

To read full report please click here.