Extra baggages of the media : News stories for sale
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 15 2011 -

Amongst the many extra baggages that the media fraternity in Manipur has had to carry for some time now is the question of "paid news" and with canvassing and campaigning for the election to the 10th Assembly picking up tempo in some Assembly Constituencies, this question has become all that more pressing.

The very term "paid news" suggests that it may not exactly come under the classical understanding of a bribe to get a news flashed or give a news story some importance and this again is another reason why filtering out paid news is not as simple as it seems.

In short, dealing with it cannot be a cut and paste job, but this however is not the reason to turn a blind eye to it or to pass it off as an excuse for giving primacy to paid news for ultimately it is as unacceptable as bribery.

The Election Commission of India has already come out with its version of why the media should steer clear of paid news once the election code of conduct comes into force and even advertisements by political parties have been dubbed a No No.

Intrinsic in the stand of the Election Commission is the point that information by way of advertisements, which generally are understood in the realm of attracting the attention of the consumers and injecting a desire to own it, through sheer publicity drive, has immense potential for misleading the public and by this same yardstick it also means that paid news, which may be understood as advertisement material passed off as news stories, tend to exaggerate certain things which may again mislead the public into believing something which may not be entirely true.

As with any other aspects of life here, the media in Manipur too has its own peculiarities and what may come under the category of paid news in other parts of the country may not exactly come under this category here or vice versa.

And a striking peculiarity that dogs the media in Manipur is the growing culture of "gifting" money to reporters for covering an event, even if the event is news worthy and front page material and would have been published without the "gift".

A brutal and frank appraisal will say that this trend has come about because media persons readily accept the gift and the news makes it to one of the more coveted pages of the next day's papers. The Editors may or may not be aware of this, but this does not in any way take away their share of the guilt. Period.

Poor pay or remuneration of the media persons has often been cited as one of the reasons for treating this issue with velvet gloves.

The Sangai Express has already made its stand clear on this matter and that is, no one has the right to prostitute one's profession and this should stand for all times to come.

No one is a holy cow but this does not mean that all should be allowed to taint and pollute the profession. There is no reason why a long rope should be given to anyone on the excuse that the pay and remuneration they receive is too less to meet the growing demands of the time.

Failure to land a higher paying job should be no reason for anyone to join this profession and pollute it. This ideally should be the case for every profession but at the moment, we can only speak for ourselves.

The recent news report run by a daily newspaper with regard to money being passed to a couple of reporters for covering an event is perhaps the prescribed shock treatment for everyone in this profession.

There can be nothing more ludicrous, more unacceptable and more unethical than the mindset that the pay and remuneration that one receives should define one's approach to one's profession.

A poor pay should not and cannot justify blatant indulgence in receiving money for covering an event and turning it into a news story.

Journalists are meant to be in the service of media establishments not others who want to spin a yarn or even give an excellent news story. If this is too tall an order for anyone to follow then it is time for them to pack up.

That media persons are on trial every working hour is part of the job profile of a journalist and it is not for nothing why it is generally understood that journalism is a demanding and challenging profession.

That challenge should not be viewed and understood only through the prism of establishing contacts and getting scoops after scoops but also in conducting one's profession.

The media establishments here need to strictly work out their own code of conduct with the All Manipur Working Journalists' Union taking on the task of laying down a broad framework for all media persons to adhere to