Election Commission to discuss paid news at all-party meet today
New Delhi: Amid concern over the alarming proportion of paid news in the Indian media and the growing use of money power in polls, the Election Commission will hold a day-long
deliberations with all parties on Monday in a bid to eliminate electoral malpractices. It has
been reported that six national parties and over 50 recognised state political
parties have been invited for the meeting. The issue of criminalisation of politics
and the use of electronic voting machines is also expected to be discussed in
the meeting. Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi and other two Election
Commissioners
V S Sampath and H S Brahma would hear the views of the leaders of political
parties
in order to address these issues. The Election Commission would later hold separate
consultations with the national parties and the state parties. The Press Council
of India (PCI) expressing concern over the paid news syndrome recently defined
paid news as: "Any news or analysis appearing in any media (print and electronic)
for a price in cash or kind as consideration." The PCI has undertaken a study
of the phenomenon of paid news during the Lok Sabha polls and assembly polls in
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and has come out with a set of
recommendations to stop such malpractices.
