[Reader-list] WSJ on the Indian media - "Want Press Coverage? Give Me Some Money"

[sukanya ghosh]

Sad but true. It's no surprise to learn of coverage 'bartering' for 
politicians. Seems to me a logical enough step considering that most 
other news coverage can consist of bought spaces. The entertainment 
pages (which unfortunately bleed their way insidiously into most other 
pages) are established norms for this. It seems to me that a 'free 
press' in our country exists in a very marginal way. Someone I met once 
who worked for a leading English language daily told me very pompously 
that 'they' (read 'educated journalist'), had nothing to do with and 
were not to be associated with what the rest of the paper was saying. 
Their reach consisted of being confined to the editorial pages of which 
they were supremely proud of. Never mind that the paper has various 
other pages of 'news', many supplements and an incredibly bad Sunday 
magazine. Are we to be thankful that we have a page of actual reading 
material (some of it occasionally good) and assume the rest is all 
trash? Another leading daily in another city (also English) has in place 
various marketing bundles which allow you to 'purchase' news coverage. 
And these are not covert or shadowy backroom deals  - it's all very out 
there for the right buyers. We see newspapers, news channels owned by 
particular organisations who seem to spend a lot of their time exhorting 
the virtues of events / news pertaining to those organisations. And my 
pet grouse, all this while the arts sections keep shrinking in size day 
by day. Where trying to get coverage for an event / exhibition / book 
(no matter how significant) can lead to nail biting finish, wondering if 
the reporter (who has been given detailed press releases) will at least 
get the name right.

The irony being of course that there is no dearth of news of the 
sensational variety if one were to attempt to report just facts in the 
case of Indian politics. But that would mean effort and interest. And 
that surely is lacking in our press coverages.




Rana Dasgupta wrote:
> Want Press Coverage? Give Me Some Money
>
> By PAUL BECKETT
>
> Ajay Goyal is a serious, independent candidate contesting for a Lok 
> Sabha seat in Chandigarh.
> Never heard of him? Neither, probably, have a lot of people in 
> Chandigarh because when it came to getting press coverage for his 
> campaign he was faced with a simple message: If you want press, you have 
> to pay.
>
> So far, he says, he's been approached by about 10 people – some brokers 
> and public relations managers acting on behalf of newspaper owners, some 
> reporters and editors – with the message that he'll only get written 
> about in the news pages for a fee. We're not talking advertising; we're 
> talking news.
>
> One broker offered three weeks of coverage in four newspapers for 10 
> lakh rupees ($20,000). A reporter and a photographer from a Chandigarh 
> newspaper told him that for 1.5 lakh rupees ($3,000) for them and a 
> further 3 lakh rupees ($6,000) for other reporters, they could guarantee 
> coverage in up to five newspapers for two weeks.
>
> "We would do good coverage for you," he says they told him. All of those 
> who approached him either were from national Hindi language papers or 
> regional papers, Mr. Goyal says.
>
> “You want a front page photo for free? This is something people pay for.”
>
> In one case, he went along to see what would happen: a press release he 
> submitted full of falsehoods – claiming he had campaigned in places he 
> had never been, for instance – ran verbatim. One thing he has never seen 
> on his real campaign: a reporter there to cover the story.
>
> "It's disappointing," Mr. Goyal says. "What good is literacy and 
> education if people have no access to real news, investigation, 
> skepticism or a questioning reporter."
>
> At the nexus of corruption in India, the nation's newspapers usually 
> play either vigilante cop exposing wrongdoing in the public interest (on 
> a good day, at a few publications) or spineless patsy killing stories on 
> the orders of powerful advertisers. Many papers also engage in practices 
> that cross the ethical line between advertising and editorial in a way 
> that is opaque, if not downright obscure, to readers.
>
> But it is of another order of magnitude to see reporters, editors and 
> newspaper owners holding the democratic process to ransom. A free (in 
> every sense) press is an integral part of a vibrant democracy. A corrupt 
> press is both symptom and perpetrator of a rotten democracy.
>
> "I'm not saying all media is biased but there is a growing sense in 
> people's minds that a lot of the media is biased," says Anil Bairwal, 
> national coordinator of National Election Watch. "Some do it in a 
> sublime manner and some do it openly."
>
> So why are we surprised when the voter turnout is so low, despite the 
> much-touted surge of political awareness among the young and 
> post-Mumbai? It's all part and parcel of the public disgust with the 
> political system and the pillars of the Establishment that support that 
> system as well. For every newly-minted reform-minded, politically aware 
> voter, there are probably hundreds of jaded citizens who just decide the 
> heck with it.
>
> How widespread is the practice of pay per say?
>
> The best-known English-language dailies typically don't do it so 
> blatantly, candidates and others involved in the elections say. Rather, 
> those papers are more likely to hue closely to one major party or the 
> other, making it tough for candidates who don't fit the papers' view of 
> the world to be heard. But in the Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati media, to 
> name a few, the practice is widespread, candidates say.
>
> N. Gopalaswami, retired Chief Election Commissioner, says in an 
> interview, "This is not something that can be ignored. It is not just a 
> few apparent cases, it is much more than that."
>
> He has heard of newspapers proferring a rate card - one price for 
> positive coverage, another for not negative coverage. The commission 
> heard complaints in both 2007 and 2008 about candidates being charged 
> for coverage. Among them, the national Communist parties who don't have 
> the deep coffers to spend on campaigns.
>
> In Mumbai, a city appropriately geared to commerce, politicians are 
> faced with multiple payment options. Consider these phrases from 
> newspaper editors and brokers, which I culled from campaigners:
>
> "You want a front page photo for free? This is something people pay for."
>
> "If you want a picture in there or if you want a story, we have to be paid."
>
> "We're going to publish the interview, but you need to buy 5,000 copies 
> of our paper."
>
> "1.2 lakhs ($2,400) for the next two weeks and I will take care of all 
> that coverage."
>
> —Paul Beckett is the WSJ's bureau chief in New Delhi
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-- 
sukanya ghosh / +91 9831306925