Paid News:  

Paid News is broadly publishing or broadcasting advertisements cloaked as news.

What is “paid news”?

Paid news is used to describe a situation where a newspaper or media house signs a deal with an individual candidate, agrees to publish a combination of advertisements and sycophantic news items about him, assures him a fixed quantum of coverage and, for an additional fee agrees to run a negative campaign against or completely black out his rival.

The blue print of paid news now come in the News papers and television as News Stories, News stories and Advertisements, News stories, advertisements and profiles and News stories, advertisements, profiles and negative items about their rivals.

“Paid news” is a serious matter, as it is influencing the functioning of a free Press and there is an urgent need to protect the people’s right to “unbiased information”. “…when paid information is presented as news content, it could mislead the public and hamper their judgment to form a correct opinion.” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said in response to a calling attention motion in the Rajya Sabha.

These pests are familiar in smaller towns and individual constituencies where local and regional language newspapers or channels do deals with candidates. However, in the 2009 Lok Sabha election the “paid news” device became a sort of stimulus package for sections of the national media. Television channels formed a cartel and hiked their rates calling it an “election premium”.

Paid news is a serious problem and this is the high time to tackle with this menace of media industry. It is a virus, if it is allowed to grow, it will increase corruption and change the face of politics by enhancing crime and supporting any company, industry or political parties which are not good for development of India and worse not just institutionalizing corruption in the media but actually subvert our democracy.

P. Sainath wrote in the Hindu on October 26, 2009: “The game has moved from the petty personal corruption of a handful of journalists to the structured extraction of huge sums of money by media outfits”.

But not all journalists are of the type that cater to or allow paid news. Many journalists remain meticulously honest and devoted to their calling and at its most idealistic, basic-level journalism, like politics, is not a profession but a calling. If we look at the articles of many senior journalists are absolutely embarrassed by the idea of “paid news” and concerned it will kill the media’s credibility forever.

"Amazingly, we have found that some newspapers even prepared rate cards for the candidates in the last few elections. There are different rates for positive news coverage, interviews, editorials and also putting out damaging reports against the opponents," Guha Thakurta asserted an eminent media critic and also the member of the press council investigative team.

Rajdeep Sardesai, the editor's guild president and also the chief editor of the CNN-IBN television news channel, speaking to this writer, said that the Guild was 'deeply shocked and seriously concerned at the increasing number of reports detailing the pernicious practice of publishing paid news by some newspapers and television channels, especially during the recent elections'.

So paid news is a severe journalistic malpractice and paid news is threatening the foundation of journalism by eroding public faith in the credibility and impartiality of news reporting. This paid news is destroying the authenticity of media industry and their values. A section of Indian media had 'indulged in monetary deals with some politicians and candidates by publishing their views as news items and bringing out negative news items against rival candidates' during the last elections.’At the time of election media play a vital role in blocking public minds and preventing the fair election, since richer and powerful candidate who can for their publicity gets a lucid advantage.

Case: The 'India Shining' campaign which is marked the beginning of a new age of political advertising in India. It discusses in depth the political advertising strategy of the erstwhile NDA government and examines how the campaign was aimed as a tool to win votes.

Miss Ambika soni said, "The media acts as a repository of public trust for conveying correct and true information to the people. However, when paid information is presented as news content, it could mislead the public and thereby hamper their judgment to form a correct opinion. Thus, there is no denying the fact that there is an urgent need to protect the public's right to correct and unbiased information.”

So, this is right time to fight against this media evil and remove it from its root. Reader and viewer must enlighten with this truth that they are bombarding with lots of fake and paid news which has no relevancy and Media industry are using by big businessmen and politician so viewer must take a first step to get authentic and credible news and avoid you by being a victim of this Paid news. Be a sensible and responsible reader.

Big hurdle in stopping this syndrome is that there is no record of the money exchanged in the deal so to stop this malpractice there should be a law which say that no electoral publicity will be done through Newspaper and other media industries. This should be declared as an electoral malpractice.