Ever since the paid news controversy hit the stands following the Maharashtra assembly elections, followed by the the journalistic profession has been under tremendous pressure. After all, if newspapers were masquerading advertisements as news, or if top journalists didn?t have a problem crossing the lakshman rekha, how were people to view the profession? None of this was new, in the sense it has been happening for a long time, but the scale was frightening. Naturally enough, journalists looked to bodies like the Press Council of India and the Editors Guild. The PCI, in turn, set up a sub-committee to investigate the matter and when the sub-committee?s report gave several instances of newspapers publishing paid news, it simply blanked out the names in the final report! It said the original report could remain on record as the reference document, but it never even attached it to the final report. Which is why, when the PCI said Section 15(4) of the Press Council Act should be amended to make its directions binding, no one took it seriously.
The Editors Guild, according to a news report, seems to have taken a different line, not quite name-and-shame, but a subtle variant of it?keep in mind the price paid by some journalists who figure in the Radia tapes. It appears the Guild had sent out pledges to 200 editors asking them to undertake they would not publish paid news?around two dozen have accepted this, and these names will be published on its Website. It?s a start.