Paid News and Private Treaties (and suggestions to the Editor's Guild)

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Background
Mahesh Vijapurkar in an article that appeared in TheHoot.org and P.Sainath with his scathing commentary (1,2 and 3) in The Hindu, exposed the obvious abuse of the media by politicians in the Maharashtra elections.

In summary, politicians and political parties were paying newspapers and the broadcasting media to provide positive coverage and screaming headlines in the run-up to the Mahasrashtra elections. Another form of spin-doctoring is practised by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (India's largest media house). Times Private Treaties receives a financial stake in a company in exchange for coverage in their publications. Both forms of news are referred to as “paid news”. Chomsky called it “manufacturing consent”.  Sainath and Vijapurkar have triggered a much needed debate on the ethics of such news.

The Editor’s Guild recently (re)elected Rajdeep Sardesai as it’s President. Rajdeep is editor of CNN-IBN. The channel is also the loudest mouthpiece for the Shave India campaign sponsored by Gillette [ #ShaveIndia ]. The Editors Guild responded to the “paid news” by announcing an ethics committee. The announcement came via a tweet by @rajdeepsardesai that linked to a press release on the Editor’s Guild website.  There was also a front page article in The Hindu the next day.

My Opinion
Paid news has been a problem for a long time. Self-regulation within the media has failed miserably. Urgent action is required. It is unlikely that the Ethics Committee which includes stalwarts like T N Ninan and Madhu Kishwar will be to able to clean up the mess. Unless the promise of self-regulation becomes a reality, the government will have to step in with regulation.

My recommendations
It appears that this committee will not be seeking the opinion of readers and viewers. It would be unfortunate if the most important stakeholder group for the media is ignored while addressing this issue.

In an e-mail to Rajdeep Sardesai, I mentioned some of the areas that the ethics committee should look at closely. I did receive a brief response to the e-mail that indicated that it was received and read. (I thank Rajdeep Sardesai for acknowledging the mail.)

BEGIN QUOTE--

I am led to believe (through your posting on Twitter) that the Editor’s Guild has constituted an ethics committee to frame recommendations on “paid news” and “private treaties”.  I hope this committee is able to make honest recommendations that journalists, editors and managers can turn to.  May I request you to forward a few suggestions to the ethics committee?

At the risk of sounding 'obvious', I would like to suggest the following in the hope that the committee incorporates them

1. Independent directors must be independent. A director or independent director in a media company should not hold a directorship in ANY other company.
   
   
2. Each newspaper/channel should be encouraged to appoint an ombudsman so that readers can send in any grievances that they may have about the quality of content. This recommendation is specifically related to manufactured news
   
   
3. After every National and State election, a newspapers/news channel must publish the billing that they have received
     a) by candidate
     b) by political party
   (irrespective of whether the advertisement is being directly or indirectly paid for by a candidate or party. Proxy advertising needs to be clearly accounted for as well)
   
   
4. Media houses must disclose the names of their top ten 'end' customers based on billing - every quarter (from an advertising stand-point). While it may not be feasible to disclose the value of the billing, the names of the Top10 end customers should ideally be disclosed.
   
   
5. Editorial pages should not contain content that has been paid for (in cash, in kind or by any other means)
   
   
6. Space that is normally used for the masthead should NOT be sold for advertising. The amount of space on the front-page/first-page that is sold for advertising should be capped
   
   
7. Whatever recommendations the committee makes must be extended to the vernacular media as well.

I hope it is appropriate for you to forward these thoughts to the ethics committee.

--END QUOTE

Call To Action

• Some visible steps to increase accountability is critical if the media is to get back some of it’s independence and stay true to it’s cause of being a pillar of democracy.
  
  
• Viewers of the broadcasting media and readers of the print media (both English and Vernacular) must send in their (unsolicited and uninvited) suggestions to the President of the Editor’s Guild.
  (The e-mail ID of the President is available on the contact us page of the editor’s guild website).
  
  
• It is imperative that ethical behaviour be restored, or else the media will face the possibility of regulation. This is not a pleasant outcome for both the Industry and the general public. 

Foot Note 
Jay Rosen in his blogpost "How to know if you are behaving ethically as a journalist: Jay Rosen’s checklist" makes an interesting read for journalists, editors and managers in the media.

A Capitalist Media Cannot be a Democratic Media

I find it infuriating that nobody in the media has taken the courage to critique the appointment of right wing capitalists to key positions in the government. In a country where 800 million people live on an income of below 1 dollar a day is it a crime to look for inclusive growth that does not put all power and wealth in the hands of limited few? Does talking about and discussing poverty mean being ostracized? The way the media talks about poverty (or rather does not talk about poverty) seems to prove something.

Iraq is the best example of the dangers of mixing right wing capitalism with governance. Here is a quick recap for our friends in this country who watch the English new channels and think they get the real picture. If you can not force a country to sell its resources, start a war in the name of democracy. Flatten the country with F-16 bombers, call it “shock and awe”, destroy it’s infrastructure and fire everybody in the public sector in the name of “cleansing”. Bring in Bechtel, the oil companies, Halliburton and every other multinational company that likes to make a quick billion in a calamity. Kill about 100,000 civilians and convince the world that the locals are barbarians. Then change the laws to allow only US companies to control wealth and resources. That is how the capitalist machinery works.

The media refers to “capitalism” as “democracy”. They seem to think that they are the one and the same thing. For example, the government in China has many capitalists, but it is a communist state.

The media confuses the two words because they (the media) themselves are critical cogs in the capitalist machinery. Imagine for a second, what would happen to Prannoy Roy, Arnab Goswami or Rajdeep Sardesai if they were to stand-up and criticize Essar for it’s dealings with tribals in Chattisgarh? To get the answer to this question you have to look at who their advertisers are. One channel, had it’s parent publication sell it’s soul (read masthead) to Reliance Communications. I guess this news channel would not mind if it’s anchors had “Reliance” tattooed on their foreheads (in color and not single tone of course).

Indra Nooyi who’s company consumes billions of litres of India’s water resources and denies farmers access to water is on Manmohan Singh’s “panel”. Lakshmi Mittal would give his right arms for a concession to the Iron Ore mines in India’s tribal districts. Both people exploit common property resource for the profits of their share holders who are not even Indian citizens. The media talks about these decisions as amazing sparks of brilliance. Hidden interests?

Why do we insist on packaged drinking water? Should the government not be supplying potable drinking water to every citizen out of the tap? If they did provide potable water – it would put Pepsi Co out of business in India and many farmers back into production. But then again, when the PM feels that he needs Indra’s advice I am sure she will be talking about getting bottled water to the homes of every citizen. The media will, at that juncture, stand on its hind legs, bark and extend a paw to the advertising division at Pepsi after which it will promptly play a game of “fetch”.

Mr Mittal will not hesitate to evict every tribal on land that he feels can get him billions in iron ore. He would readily object to any move to get locals to own the mines and sell the ore in the open market. Ownership by local communities would translate to better education, healthcare, and access to water through their own revenue streams. Overtime they would realize that the foreign direct investment would not have been an investment in their future but an investment for a short-term profit at their long-term expense.

The present government though like the BJP and the CPI (in West Bengal) will sell all our assets to large corporations. These corporations will complete the classic slam-bang-thank you maam routine (without protection) and look at their EPS or EBITDA figures.

The most profitable companies seek a tax waiver. The poorest people are expected to pay VAT on salt? Dandi march anyone? We have an opportunity to lift people out of poverty by nationalizing key sectors such as mining, we have instead been told that we need to “lease” it out. Theft of common property is theft of common property even if you call it a lease.

We need a red-light district dedicated to the media. Here they can walk naked along the streets, selling themselves at any price to any bidder from a PR company. They can be wined, dined, sweet-talked into airing any story. However, unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, most of India still has their head in a place where the sun shines.

Palestine

No matter how much I read about Palestine, I always find out something new. Every time I think the atrocities have reached a new low, I find out that the occupying army in Gaza can do worse. Unfortunately, it has started to resemble a holocaust.

Some facts that I picked up today

• The largest fleet of F-16 jets outside the US is in Israel
  
• Over 1500 children have been killed in the conflict (this includes 300 plus on the Isreali side)
• Isreal controls all the water in the region
• It could take several hours to cross from one Palestinian village to another because of border check posts controlled by heavily armed Israeli conscripts
• There are several roads that run over some of the oldest agricultural lands in the world that can only be used by Israelis
  
• Palestinian towns are controlled by a handful of Israeli settlers with military grade weapons.
• 1/3rd of all US aid US aid reaches Israel. Israel has received as much Aid from the US as the rest of the world combined.
• Zionist lobbyists spent over 46 million dollars in the US of A lobbying with politicians.
  

The most moving piece that I saw today was a video of a 5 year-old palestinian girl challenging a journalist to live in her shoes for two days and not break down.

As usual when you have a gigantic humanitarian crises soaked in blood, the US of A has it’s hands stained with the most blood. In this case they are responsible for all the weapons, a massive cover-up in the global media and for blocking every single attempt for peace in exchange for election funding.

On a more optimistic note there are many Israelis who believe that the occupation is illegal, unwarranted and unfair to the people who’s land they live on. Unfortunately there are very few Americans that share that view. Oppression after all is their religion.

If the people of Asia can focus their efforts on solving this conflict peacefully and firmly evict the Americans from the Middle East – we will have a strong chance for global peace. We would have solved the global problem of dealing with the world’s biggest bully.

For those of us of us who do not have the patience to read the reams and reams of neutral coverage of the crisis on the web I would suggest a documentary called "Occupation 101"
There are plenty of You Tube videos of Chomsky and Democracy Now as well that provide a more balanced coverage of the Palestinian story.

INTIFADA!