Author: Paul Beckett
Publication: The Wall Street Journal
Date: May 6, 2009
URL: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124158152250690795.html
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.
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
