NEW DELHI: Concerned with the spurt in the number of instances of paid news during last year’s Lok Sabha elections, the Press Council of India on Wednesday constituted a committee to monitor paid news during the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
PCI chairman Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad has constituted a committee consisting of Rajeev Ranjan Nag, Krishna Prasad and Sondeep Shankar to monitor instances of paid news in upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. The PCI has also come out with guidelines for media organisations and officials for the forthcoming Assembly elections. Almost 700 cases of Paid News were detected by the Election Commission during last year’s Lok Sabha elections. In as many as 3,053 cases, the EC had issued notices suspecting
foul play, of which 694 were found to be genuine cases of paid news by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee. The poll panel has defined paid news as items published as news but which are actually advertisements in nature.
According to the PCI, paid news can be defined as “any news or analysis appearing in any media for a price in cash or kind as consideration.” As per the guidelines issued by the PCI, the press shall not accept any kind of inducement, financial or otherwise, to project a candidate or party. It shall not accept hospitality or other facility offered to them on behalf of any candidate or party. The press shall observe all the directions or instructions from the Election Commission or the Chief Electoral Officer issued from time to time.