Paid news

Topic: Electoral Reforms: Money, Criminalisation and Simultaneous Elections · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Paid news is any news or analysis that appears in print or electronic media in return for cash or kind (goods or favours instead of money). This is the definition the Press Council of India (PCI) gave in its 2010 report. The Election Commission of India (ECI) uses the same idea for every medium [1].

It matters because a voter takes such an item for neutral news when it is really a hidden advertisement. It also lets a rich candidate get around the legal spending limit.

Explanation

Why it harms free and fair elections

• It misleads the voter.
• The item looks like honest reporting.

• It is really an advertisement that someone paid for.

• It makes the contest unequal.

• A rich candidate can buy more "coverage".

• A poorer rival cannot match it.

• It hides money.

• The money spent often does not appear in the candidate's accounts.
• So the candidate quietly crosses the spending limit.

Forms it takes [1]

• Advertisements dressed up as news.
• Refusing to cover certain candidates, so they become invisible to voters.
• "Private treaties": media houses and companies swap advertisement space for shares in the company. This creates a hidden business link between the paper or channel and the company.

How the law catches it today: the expenditure route

Paid news is not yet a separate crime or corrupt practice. The ECI deals with it as an election spending issue. The steps are:

1. Keeping accounts. Every candidate must keep an account of election spending (s.77, Representation of the People Act (RPA) 1951).
2. Filing accounts. The candidate must file this account after the result (s.78 RPA).
3. Checking the media. ECI committees watch the media and flag suspected paid news (see MCMC below) [2].
4. Adding the cost. The ECI adds the cost of the suspected paid news to the candidate's spending account.
5. Penalty. If the candidate has not filed a true and proper account, the ECI can disqualify them for 3 years (s.10A RPA).

Who watches: the MCMC

• Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMC) are committees at district and state level, set up by the ECI. They:
• pre-certify political advertisements (check and approve them before they go out) on TV, cable, radio and social media;

• watch the media and flag suspected paid news [2].

• There are two levels:

• the district MCMC takes the first decision on a paid-news case;

• the state MCMC hears appeals against district decisions. It can also take up cases on its own (suo motu) and scans social media for suspected paid news [2].

• Legal root: in Ministry of I&B v. Gemini TV (2004), the Supreme Court ordered that political advertisements on TV and cable must be certified in advance by committees set up by the ECI.

• Rulebook: the ECI's Compendium of Instructions on Media Related Matters covers paid news, certification of advertisements, social media, the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) and PCI recommendations [2].
• Online too: candidates must list their social-media accounts in Form 26 (the affidavit on criminal record, assets and liabilities). Social-media ads need MCMC pre-certification, and their cost counts as election expenditure [2].

Limits of the present system

• Only the candidate can be punished, and only for a wrong account.
• The media house that published the paid news faces no penalty under the RPA.
• None of the reform proposals below has become law.

In the Constitution and practice

• Constitutional base:
• Article 324 gives the ECI superintendence, direction and control of elections. The ECI uses this power to run the MCMC system.

• Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression, which includes press freedom) limits how far any paid-news law can go.

• Statute: RPA 1951: s.77 (keep accounts), s.78 (file accounts) and s.10A (3-year disqualification for failing to file a true account).

• Key instances:
• Umlesh Yadav (UP MLA, Bisauli), October 2011: the first legislator disqualified under s.10A, for 3 years. She had hidden paid-news spending in her expense account.

• Narottam Mishra (Madhya Pradesh minister): the ECI disqualified him in 2017 on a paid-news charge. The Delhi High Court set the order aside in 2018 (verify).

• Reform proposals (none made law yet):

• ECI proposal to the Law Ministry [1]:
  • make a candidate's use of paid news a corrupt practice (an act that can cancel an election) under the RPA;
  • make abetting or publishing paid news an electoral offence with at least 2 years' imprisonment.
• Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, 47th Report (6 May 2013; Chair: Rao Inderjit Singh) [1]:
  • the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) should draft a legal definition of paid news after talking to stakeholders;
  • set up either one regulator for print and electronic media, or give the PCI more power to punish plus a similar statutory body for electronic media, with no media owners as members;
  • make media houses disclose "private treaties" and advertising income;
  • support the ECI's proposed RPA amendments.
• Law Commission, 255th Report "Electoral Reforms" (March 2015) [3]:
  • add definitions of "paying for news", "receiving payment for news" and "political advertisement" to s.2 RPA;
  • create a new offence of paying or receiving payment for news in a new s.127B RPA;
  • conviction could lead to disqualification under s.8(3).

Don't confuse with

• Political advertisement: a political advertisement is open and labelled as an advertisement, pre-certified by the MCMC and shown in the candidate's accounts. Paid news is hidden advertising that pretends to be news.
• Fake news / deepfakes: these are about false content, such as AI-made audio or video. They are covered by the ECI advisory of 6 May 2024, which asks parties to remove such content within 3 hours [4]. Paid news may even be true. The wrong is the hidden payment.
• Corrupt practice under s.123 RPA (e.g. religious appeals): proving a corrupt practice makes the election void, and the person can be disqualified under s.8A. Paid news is not yet a corrupt practice. It is caught only as a false expense account under s.10A.
• s.10A vs s.8(3) disqualification: s.10A (3 years) is for a wrong or missing expense account and is used today. s.8(3) follows a criminal conviction, and is the route the 255th Report proposed for a new paid-news offence.

Prelims Hooks

• The definition, "news or analysis in any media for consideration in cash or kind", comes from the Press Council of India (2010), not from the RPA or the ECI [1].
• Umlesh Yadav (2011) was the first legislator disqualified under s.10A RPA, for 3 years, for a false expense account linked to paid news.
• MCMC pre-certification of political ads traces back to Ministry of I&B v. Gemini TV (2004).
• The Law Commission's 255th Report (2015) proposed a new s.127B RPA making paying or receiving payment for news an offence [3].
• Standing Committee on IT, 47th Report (2013) = the paid-news report. It asked for a legal definition and disclosure of "private treaties" [1].
• Trap: paid news is NOT at present a corrupt practice or an electoral offence under the RPA. It is handled only through the expenditure route (s.10A).

Mains Points

• The gap: the publisher goes free.
• Today only the candidate is punished, and only for wrong accounts (s.10A).
• Making paid news a corrupt practice or an offence (ECI proposal; 255th Report, s.127B) would punish both the candidate and the media house.

• Any such law must be drawn narrowly so it does not chill press freedom under Article 19(1)(a).

• Fixing the regulator.

• The PCI cannot punish strongly, and no similar statutory body exists for electronic media.

• The 47th Report's ideas would tackle the root cause inside media houses: a single media regulator or a stronger PCI, no media owners as members, and disclosure of private treaties and ad income [1].

• New media, new risks.

• Paid content is moving online.
• Form 26 disclosure of social-media accounts, MCMC pre-certification of online ads and state MCMC scanning of social media [2] are useful first steps.
• They depend on platforms cooperating and on the ECI acting quickly during a short election period.

Related concepts

• Media Certification and Monitoring Committee
• Hate speech in elections
• Appeal on grounds of religion or caste
• Abhiram Singh case
• Hindutva case
• Freebies

Read more

• Campaign integrity: paid news, hate speech, freebies and the MCC's legal status