MUMBAI: A parliamentary panel has suggested constitution of a statutory body such as a media council to look into the content of both print and electronic media or revamp the Press Council of India (PCI). In case a new body is formed, it will have the power to take strong action, particularly in cases of paid news.

Asking the information and broadcasting ministry to act swiftly on the paid news syndrome, the parliamentary standing committee on IT suggested either the PCI should be wound up on the constitution of the media council or it should be revamped with powers to take care of the print media, while a similar statutory body should be set up for the electronic media.

"In both the cases, media owners or interested parties should not be part of the proposed media council or in the revamped PCI," the standing committee said in its report tabled in parliament on Monday.

The committee regretted lack of "effective" government action to tackle paid news and also noted the poor disposal status of paid news complaints by PCI wherein 11 of the 40 cases have been closed because of lack of pursuance.It said PCI should function like a regulatory authority so that it can adjudicate the paid news cases and award penalties to guilty individuals and organisations.

Paid news, it felt, has also acquired different dimensions and stressed on evolving a mechanism for a clear demarcation as to what is an advertisement and what is not.

"Clearly, the government has not taken effective and conclusive action to deal with the menace," it said.

The committee supported reviewing election laws and rules to curb the menace of paid news in election process and empowering the Election Commission with taking action against defaulting candidates and media houses indulging in paid news.The Committee also touched on the issue of cross media holding and monopoly which it felt was also contributing to the paid news menace, recommending that the ministry and the telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) consider the issue on a "priority basis" and act promptly upon it so as to prevent monopolistic trend in the media. (TRAI is already studying the issue at the instance of the Ministry.)

The committee said the working conditions of journalists and autonomy of the editorial staff was giving rise to the paid news syndrome and sought better faculties.

The parliamentary panel has also suggested that election laws and guidelines should be reviewed and strengthened to curb paid news in the election process, empowering the Election Commission to take action against the defaulting candidate as well as the media entity found indulging in paid news.

Some of the other recommendations include creating awareness among the people about the problems of paid news and disclosures of annual income by media companies from advertisements.

It has asked the Ministry to consider the recommendations and the developments associated with the Leveson Report in the UK on media ethics. The Ministry was also urged to chalk out a plan to ensure all the relevant guidelines were strictly enforced and followed by the authorities that till a structured mechanism was put in place,.

Observing that paid news was not only an election time phenomenon but was happening everyday, the Committee said that the Ministry had an important role to play in ensuring that news and information made available to the public was factual and fair. The Press Council of India, Election Commission of India, Editors Guild of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, TRAI and other self-regulatory bodies have "acknowledged the gravity of the menace of paid news."

(Meanwhille reacting to its being named by the Committee, a Zee News spokesperson said in a statement that: "Our attention has been drawn to a report on paid media by the Honourable Standing Committee on Information and Technology. The averments made on Zee News are exparte and are being taken up suitably.")

NEW DELHI: Action has been initiated ten times against eight foreign television channels in 2011 and 2012 for violation of the Programme and Advertising Codes under the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the rules framed thereunder.

Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari told Parliament however that the Act does not provide for pre-censorship of the programmes and advertisements.

While FTV faced closure for ten days from 28 March this year, the AXN channel was taken off for one day. The other channels which were issued advisories or warnings included Sony Pix, Sony, TLC, and Zee Trends.

Sony Entertainment Television (SET) apologised for telecasting the promos of an adult film and the matter was closed, the violation by TCM TV for showing an adult film without displaying the Censor Certificate is under consideration. Star Cricket was pulled up for airing ad of a liquor brand.

An Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) has been set up to monitor the content of private TV channels. The Ministry also has an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to consider the cases of violation of these codes and recommend appropriate course of action.

The Press Council of India (PCI) formed ?Norms of Journalistic Conduct? for adherence by the print media and the Council takes cognizance of the contents in print media which are violative of the Norms. However, PCI does not have any information in regard to violation of the Norms by foreign media companies.

MUMBAI: English daily Hindustan Times has been cleared of charges of ?paid news? after an inquiry by a committee of the Press Council of India (PCI) found them to be baseless.

The committee accordingly has recommended to the full council that the matter be closed. The recommendations of the committee are generally accepted by the full council.

Earlier in January, it was reported that the PCI had decided to ?censure? HT along with some other papers for having carried news reports in the run-up to the Bihar Assembly elections of 2010 that were allegedly self-promotion material provided by the candidates in fray.
 
On 2 February, Hindustan Times editor-in-chief Sanjoy Narayan wrote that none of the four pieces ?in question? carried a politician?s quote, and reflected the voices of ?villages and farmers?. The paper, he had said, had done its ?checks? and would go back to ?the authority?.

The PCI committee also went through the clippings, which had been alleged to be paid news and found they were factual in nature or balanced. In fact, one story was about chopper trouble.

NEW DELHI: In a bid to check the rising menace of paid news, the government is considering amending the Press and Registration of Books and Publications Act.

The recommendation was made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee which examined the amendment bill of 2011 in this regard.

A few instances related to electronic media have been brought to the notice of the government, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said.

Whenever such allegations/grievances/petitions regarding unethical practices and incessant misreporting are received, the government takes appropriate action under the Programme and Advertising Code prescribed under Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the Rules framed thereunder.

The issue of paid news has also been examined by the Press Council of India. It had submitted a report on paid news to the government for necessary action after a sub-committee studied the issue. Although the Government had initially released only a short summary of the report, it had later placed the report on the Council?s website following an RTI application.

PCI had recommended amendment to the Representation of the People?s Act 1951 to make incidence of paid news a punishable electoral malpractice and suggested that the PCI must be fully empowered to adjudicate the complaints of ?paid news? to give final judgment in the matter among others.

The report had also suggested measures to curb the menace of paid news like setting up of a special cell in the Election Commission for action on such complaints and self-regulation by media and awareness generation.

PCI had cautioned the media to refrain from publishing news masquerading as advertisement and vice-versa.

The Election Commission has also taken cognizance of this malaise and initiated steps to check incidence of election time paid news, which includes transparency in the money spent by candidates on advertising, a ban on exit and opinion polls until the last round is over, and similar other measures.

Meanwhile, the Ministry is in the process of making a reference to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to examine alleged monopolistic practices in the distribution segment of the broadcasting sector.

The Government made a reference to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on 16 May last year to examine the entire gamut of media ownership issues.

The Ministry has requested Trai to provide recommendations on specific issues of vertical integration within the various segments in the broadcasting sector as in the present scenario more and more broadcasting companies owning television channels are venturing into various distribution platforms, cable TV distribution, DTH, and IPTV etc. and similarly many companies owning distribution platforms are also entering into television broadcasting.

Trai has also been asked to look into the issue of horizontal integration wherein companies have controls/ownerships across print, TV and radio. The broadcast sector?s recommendations are awaited.

NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India (PCI) report on media in Bihar has raised a major political storm, with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley alleging that PCI Chairman Justice Markandey Katju was targeting non-Congress ruled states and the latter denying these charges and action taken in Congress-ruled states.

Both of them have demanded each other?s resignation, with Justice Katji saying Jaitley "is unfit for politics."

In an article on the BJP website, Jaitley had written that Justice Katju?s attacks on non-Congress state governments seem like "a thanksgiving to those who gave him a post-retirement job."

"His utterances, both during his tenure as a Judge and thereafter, are clearly outlandish. Dignified comment is alien to him. His attacks on non-Congress governments whether in West Bengal, Bihar or Gujarat seem more in the nature of thanks-giving to those who provided him with a post retirement job," Jaitley wrote in an article titled, ?Why Justice Markandey Katju must quit as the Chairman of the Press Council of India?.

Justice Katju has said the BJP leader "has presented half-truths and has gone down to a very low level in personal attacks," adding, "I have criticised Maharashtra Chief Minister when the Facebook girl was arrested. I issued a statement when the Himachal Chief Minister threatened a media person, saying his camera will be broken. So I have criticised Congress governments also." He also referred to his statement when the police attacked demonstrators in Delhi against the gang-rape, and the recent detention of senior mediaperson Ifthikar Gilani.

In his article, Jaitley had also said that Justice Katju?s article in a newspaper against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi read more like a "personal tirade".

"Justice Markandey Katju has failed every test on which a Judge whether sitting or retired could be judged. The choice of his subjects and targets is motivated by his political preferences," he had written.

The Congress party has also attacked Jaitley for his views, particularly the comments about Justice Katju?s remarks about Modi.

In its report, the PCI had strongly criticised the Bihar Government, accusing it of arm-twisting the media through various means. It compared the situation in Bihar with Emergency when a complete censorship was imposed on the media.

?The media in Bihar has been gagged and newspapers have become mouthpiece of the government,? said the recently-released report of the PCI on the state of media in Bihar.

Last year on 25 February, Justice Katju constituted a three-member fact-finding team to look into the complaints by some journalists and also people from civil society that the media was not working objectively in the state. The team recently submitted its report to the PCI.

?Journalists in the state are now gagged, muted and handicapped. The newspapers either avoid publication of news related to crime, ransom, land grabbing by the leaders of the ruling establishment or their supporters, murders, and the activities of the land mafia, or they are underplayed and published in brief as small news items,? the report said.

Likening the situation to that of Emergency, the report stated: ?Free and fair journalism in Bihar is facing a situation of censorship, the likes of which were seen during the Emergency in our country.?

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari does not agree that the Press Council of India lacks teeth, but has stressed that certain issues should be best left to self-regulation by the media bodies.

The Minister, who said the matter relating to paid news was pending before the Inter-Ministerial Committee of his Ministry, was reacting to demands by several members of Parliament over the issue of paid news and content shown on news channels.

"When some of our members were caught accepting money for asking questions during a sting operation, their membership was terminated. Their career was ruined. But no action has been taken after this sting operation. The licence of this channel should be cancelled," Lal Singh, a Congress MP said. He complained that news channels show objectionable content.

Speaking on the issue, Sharad Yadav (JD-U) said that when a demand was being made to bring even the Prime Minister under Lokpal, accountability of print and electronic media should be fixed and the Press Council of India be given more powers. ?Why have you kept such a creature (PCI) which has no teeth... A tiger (media) has been unleashed. The coal scam has been set aside... These channels are showing crude dances. Either give more teeth to PCI or close it down," Yadav said.

Tewari said the Zee TV issue was in court and therefore was sub judice.