In a bid to check the phenomenon of paid news, the Press Council of India on Friday recommended among other things amendment to elections laws to declare any payment for publication of news as a corrupt practice.
Since election-time paid news syndrome undermines free and fair elections, it is recommended that the Representation of the People Act, 1951 be suitably amended so as to declare any payment for the publication of news as a corrupt practice or an "electoral malpractice", a special committee of the council said in its recommendations.
The report of the Drafting Committee, headed by H N Cama, former President of INS, was adopted unanimously at a meeting of the 23-member council chaired by Justice G N Ray, a retired judge of the Supreme Court.
The adoption of the report was preceded by a heated discussion on the subject but the meeting turned down two proposals-- to include the original report of the two-member committee on paid news as "annexure" to the final report and another suggesting "strengthening" of the Working Journalists Act to ensure job security and independence of journalists as an anti-dote to the paid news phenomenon.
The council asked the Election Commission of India to set up a special cell to receive complaints about "paid news" in the run-up to the conduct of elections and initiate a process through which expeditious action could be taken on the basis of such complaints.
"The EC should nominate independent journalists or citizens in consultation with the Press Council to various states and districts," the draft recommendations said.
One of the recommendations favoured amendment to the Press Council of India Act to make its directions to the newspapers binding. This issue has been hanging fire for long and should be taken up by the government on a priority basis, it said.
The report recommended that the electronic media be brought under the council's purview. The Press Council of India should also be reconstituted to include representatives from electronic and other media houses, the report said.
The council also spoke of the need to self-regulate and educate against the phenomenon of paid news, which it said can be defined as any news appearing in any media for a price in cash or kind as consideration.
Self-regulation is the best option, it said adding, "Self-regulation only offers partial solutions to the problem since there would always be offenders who would refuse to abide by voluntary codes of conduct and ethical norms that are not legally mandated".
It suggested that efforts should be made to educate the voters and differentiate between the doctored reporting and balanced and just reporting.
"This can be done by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with the help of Press Council of India and various associations of journalists and newspapers owners," the draft said.
It asked the I & B ministry to conduct national conferences, workshops, seminars and awareness-generating campaigns. A small committee of Members of Parliament from both Houses should hold a hearing for suggesting changes in Representation of People Act to prevent the practice paying for news coverage in newspapers and television channels.
