Dealing with Paid News

What is the issue?

The Election Commission of India (ECI) holds that paid news impairs the process of free and fair elections.

What is the observation?

• Paid news refers to the news or analysis appearing in any media for a price in cash or kind.
• It plays a significant but negative role in the context of free and fair elections.
• It also involves under-reporting of election expenses by candidates.
• EC found 42 cases of paid news in the election of BJP’s Narottam Mishra in 2008 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.

How is paid news being dealt?

• There is no specific law against “paid news” in India.
• But the poll panel depend on Section 10A of the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA).
• It deals with the misreporting of funds related to election expenses.
• E.g. In 2017, the ECI ordered Mishra’s disqualification and barred him from contesting elections for 3 years.
• It argued that Mishra knew of, and by implication authorised the publication of the “reports”.
• This should be seen as political advertising under Section 77 of the RPA.
• So, the expenditure incurred or authorised on this head should have been listed in the submissions to the poll regulator.
• But Mishra had “failed to lodge a correct and true account of his election expenses”.

What is the court's view?

• The Delhi High Court later set aside Mishra's disqualification.
• It said that the content of a media article or a news feature on particular candidates should not be regulated indirectly through EC's directives.
• It observed that they essentially fall within the domain of free speech.
• So, this eventually restricts the poll regulator from acting against paid news.

What are the demands in place?

• The ECI suggested the Union government that paid news be made an electoral offence under the RPA.
• A Law Commission report from 2015 also recommends amending the RPA to this effect.
• But governments have approached the problem from a press regulation perspective rather than poll regulation.
• E.g. the earlier government brought the Registration of Newspapers and Publications Bill, 2013
• The present government proposed providing for suspension of publication permits for a period of 45 days for erring publications.

What could be done?

• Cracking down on candidates who mislead the electorate through paid news preserves India’s democratic values.
• The ECI has approached the Supreme Court against the Delhi HC order, and so, much depends on which way the SC decides.
• Meanwhile, the government and political parties would do well to gather the will to amend the RPA.

Source: Financial Express
Author: Shankar IAS Academy Bangalore - Best UPSC Coaching Institute