Goa Media Union reiterates support in Herald Paid News case and CEC Quraishi on paid news in Goa

Chief Election Commissioner Dr S Y Quraishi on Friday said that the Herald 'paid news' complaint had been forwarded to the Press Council of India (PCI) for action.
Quraishi was responding to a query from media persons during an interaction at the Goa International Centre, where Quraishi along with other members of the Commission were conducting pre poll preparations.
Both the author of this blog and the Goa Union of Journalists had submitted a complaint to the ECI vis a vis the 'paid news' expose in Goa.
The CEC also said that political parties in Goa had complained about “paid news” and told the Commission that many politicians were releasing birthday advertisements expecting quid pro quo for favours during elections. Incidenally, the latter fact was reported by none of the local English dailies available here, barring The Hindu. 
Earlier last week the Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ) representing more than 200 working journalists in Goa issued a media statement, it received a communication from the PCI to submit all evidence available with them.
Please find the relevant portions of the press note printed below.

PRESS   NOTE

PANJIM: The Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ) has decided to furnish all the required information sought regarding Paid News complaint by Mayabhushan Nagvenkar pertaining to Herald, to the Press Council of
India (PCI), New Delhi, for appropriate action.
The meeting of GUJ executive committee chaired by its president Pandurang Gaonkar on Wednesday, deliberated upon the letter made by the PCI seeking all information regarding Paid News complaint.
The GUJ decided to pursue the complaint and to extend all possible support to the complainant till the matter is taken to its logical conclusion.
The GUJ has also decided to raise the issue of Paid News before the Election Commission of India during its visit to Goa on Friday, December 16... 

The Goa paid news story also finds mention in media critic Sevanti Ninan's column 'Media Matters' in the Hindu Sunday (Dec 18).

Criminal defamation case against whistleblower in Goa "paid news" story

Hi,

Finally an update on the Goa paid news story. An interesting one. A criminal defamation complaint under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code has been filed against me at a trial court in Goa following the paid news expose in October.

A source was kind enough to give me a copy of the complaint filed against me. Interestingly the defamation case has been filed by Tulsidas Desai, Herald's marketing manager, who struck the paid news deal with me on phone and email, while I was posing as fictitious budding politician 'Bernard Costa'.


Please find the nine pages of the defamation case below, which was incidentally filed on 11/11/11. :) A legal source gave me a copy of the complaint a couple of days back.

The complaint accuses me of doing the paid news story "out of sheer frustration" by using "the facilities of the internet to start publishing his own fanciful ideas, which were basically 'anti' in nature. His famous (or rather notorious) blog for some time was titled 'penpricks' where he freely indulged in mud slinging against one and all".

This blog www.paidnewsingoa.blogspot.com has also been described a a 'nefarious activity' by the complainant.

Tulsidas also claimed in his complaint that the conversation about the paid news deal never happened.

For more untruths, you could run through the scanned images attached.

The criminal defamation complaint amounts to clear intimidation of a whistle blower, exposing an unethical practice, in this case the phenomenon of paid news.

I will contest this bullshit.

Thank you for all your support and look forward to more of it. Watch this space for more updates as they happen

Mayabhushan

The 'Paid News' story and the Goa Editors 'Guilt'

Hi update of the Goa Paid News Story

The Goa Editors Guild (GEG) issued a statement on November 1 (reproduced below).

It’s a nice thing that editors to have finally taken note of the Herald paid news story a ‘full’ six days after the story broke on this blog and a complaint was filed before the Press Council of India on October 25.

But there’s something shocking inadequate about the points raised by the GEG.

While all the points laid out in it are valid and true in a very academic manner, the absence to any reference to the express incident – the Herald paid news story -- robs the statement of every shred of sincerity. The refusal of the small editorial community in Goa to even acknowledge the ‘paid news’ story in the statement is also a telling thing.

Their silence speaks volumes of the editorial judgement of the captains of the media here. It also betrays a cynical talent, which makes you look away, while the very roots of journalism being hacked a short distance their thresholds. Or probably they have been deafened by the echoes of the advertorial axe.

Here’s a fact.

While some newspapers have reported the pressnote issued by the Goa Union of Journalists and the GEG, not a single newspaper ran the ‘paid news’ scandal as a news story, even as several independent Goa news websites and national dailies have run the story on their pages.

While I am in complete concurrence with the GEG statement that there is ‘growing concern’ over the phenomenon of paid news and that it must be encouraged, the GEG has made no mention of the procedures they have in place to tackle ‘paid news’, nor have they condemned Herald for indulging in paid news, nor have they even sought a probe into the revelations made in the story.

What they have done instead, is called on a person bleeding to death, expressed concern about his condition and then left him to die.

P.S. The Mail Today, a Delhi based tabloid ran the paid story yesterday. Here’s the link. Check out the last line. That clinches it.

Goa Editor's Guild statement

The concern growing over the phenomenon of  ‘paid news’ in the media is legitimate.

The media’s primary accountability is with the reader and viewer. With publication of articles and features or television broadcast of materials that are in reality advertisement and publicity for some individual as news without any clear mention of them being advertisements, the reader/viewer can be misled into believing that the publication/broadcast is truthful. It amounts to deception of readers and viewers.

The media owes its credibility to independence and objectivity in the gathering and ordering of the materials or TV footage to inform, educate and enlighten the reader/viewer. The editorial space is entirely reader/viewer’s space. There is a clear-cut allocation of space for advertisements in newspapers and TV channels. With the publication or broadcast of ‘paid news’ the dividing lines between news and advertisement are blurred, deceiving the reader/viewer.

The practice of ‘paid news’ must be discouraged by the media and mediapersons in the long-term interest of the credibility of the media. The lines drawn between the editorial and advertising space must remain clear. If the media allows these lines to blur it will lose credibility, endangering democracy.

Goa "Paid News" story makes front page -- all editions -- in The Hindu

Hi,
For the first time since the Goa 'paid news' story broke in october, a mainstream newspaper has taken cognizance. Credit to the dogged perseverance of the paper's rural editor P Sainath and its local correspondent Prakash Kamat who have been co-ordinating and patching together inputs for over a week.

Please find below the published content.The story was published on the second deck in The Hindu's Delhi edition and it was a pleasure being published in a slot below a story on Wikileaks' Julian Assange. 

Goa daily stung by paidnews bug

Caught offering to publish scripted political interview as ‘news' for Rs. 86,400

“First we'll do one interview on TV on HCN [Herald Cable Network] and after that episode next week, we can carry the same kind of write-up [in the Herald] … how it appeared today, no ... for the HCN thing you have to make a payment of 50,000 [rupees] … and this particular size for Herald, it will be 86,400 rupees … Only you will have to prepare from your side which kind of questions you will like to answer comfortably …”

Paid news is no stranger to Goa, only this time it's drawing unfriendly attention. Those are excerpts from recorded conversations between Tulshidas Desai, marketing manager of OHeraldO (the Herald) and Goa-based journalist Mayabhushan Nagvenkar.

The journalist was pulling off a sting posing as Bernard Costa, a would-be candidate in the State's Assembly polls to be held early next year.

Sales pitch

The Herald's marketing manager is making a sales pitch when the journalist calls up and asks how much it would cost to have an interview of himself dressed up as news. The Herald claims to be Goa's largest-circulated English daily.

“Ya, but can you send me a quotation?” the journalist posing as a candidate asks Mr. Desai. “A rough quotation [of what it costs]?” Mr. Desai knows an ethical line is being crossed and is wary of leaving a trail. “This is like an editorial kind of thing, no,” he says. “I can't mention on the paper, you know … .”

Money for interview

In the conversations, the marketing manager appears to confirm that Raymond D'Sa [an aspiring candidate from Cortalim in south Goa] paid Rs. 2 lakh to get his ‘interview' carried in the Herald of October 20, the morning of the conversation.

Mr. Nagvenkar: “So Raymond's interview was [for] two lakh [rupees].” Desai: “Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya …” But “you are not going to say advertorial, [above the interview], no? asks the journalist. No, Mr. Desai [who first mentioned ‘advertorial'] reassures him. It would be just like Raymond D'Sa's interview. “Today how nothing is mentioned no? Like that only … .” However, Mr. D'Sa, when contacted by The Hindu, flatly denied having made any payment for the interview.

Since these audio recordings went public, all hell has broken loose. Except in Goa's media, which remains stoically silent on a scandal which broke just after the Election Commission of India handed out the first-ever verdict in Indian electoral history disqualifying a sitting legislator for improper accounts and indulging in “paid news.” 

                                                     ---------------------------------

Herald denies ‘paid news’ charge but ball in Press Council court now

Armed with recordings, transcripts, emails and cuttings, Mayabhushan Nagvenkar has taken the matter of what he calls “an open and shut case” of ‘paid news' against OHeraldO of Goa to the Press Council of India.

The Press Council defines ‘paid news' as “any news or analysis appearing in any media [print or electronic] for a price in cash or kind as consideration.” Mr. Nagvenkar backs his complaint with audios and transcripts of four telephonic conversations with the Herald's marketing manager, Tulshidas Desai, recorded between October 20 and 22. The conversations, he charges, indicate that the newspaper regularly indulges in such paid political news. He also alleges that Mr. Desai could not have pushed a deal like this without the consent, “tacit or otherwise,” of the editorial leadership.

Asked for his response, Mr. Desai flatly rejected the charges and asserted he had only been talking of an “advertorial concept.” He denied ever interfering in “the editorial area.” In a statement responding to the complaint to the PCI, Herald editor Sujay Gupta emphatically denied that “any editorial content which has appeared in the Herald, without the “advertorial” tag line has been paid for.” And even said that such suggestions were “hugely defamatory.” He warns that the “Herald will respond to these allegations urgently and appropriately in a proper forum.”

Meanwhile, the Goa Union of Journalists has come out with a strong statement against ‘paid news,' noting it was “rampant in the 2007 Assembly elections.” The GUJ also “accepted Mr. Nagvenkar's contention that the sting was undertaken in the public interest and in the interest of the professional ethics.”

One point of convergence — so far, anyway: Nobody has denied the conversations or questioned the authenticity of the telephone recordings. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Gupta described Mr. Desai's statements as “absolutely incorrect” and stated that “he has overreached himself.” He described the manager's words as “highly irresponsible” and made in a sales and marketing conversation and said the entire management and editor disassociated themselves from these. “Even if he has said it, they may claim anything, it has to ultimately pass through the editor. I will never allow any such thing to happen. It is eventually the editorial decision, where I put my foot down,” he said.

Mr. Nagvenkar, though, is combative. “Desai told me, [as Bernard Costa], that I could get a political campaign interview [15 inches by eight news columns, to be exact] in the newspaper for Rs. 86,400, and for an additional Rs. 50,000, I could be interviewed on the Herald Cable Network [HCN], the local cable news channel operated by the same media group. And assured me that none of the paid content will carry an ‘advertorial' tag.” He also points to Mr. Desai's acknowledging that Raymond D'Sa of Cortalim had paid Rs. 2 lakh for his ‘interview.'

Mr. Gupta denied any financial transaction occurred, saying: “I would rather resign than permit something like this.” He told The Hindu, however, that the decision to carry interviews of first- time candidates “where it looks like you are promoting a person” was an editorial error of judgment which The Herald would rectify immediately. But insisted that this was done in absolute honesty.

In his public statement, he also asserts that: “As Editor, my stated position both within and outside the organisation has been that paid content cannot be disguised as news.” Politicians' messages, claims of achievements and any other such information through a paid route, “we have prominently stated that they are advertorials,” said Mr. Gupta and went on to reiterate that “Editorial was not in the know of any such negotiations or discussions…”

“If the Herald has a system to channel paid content as ‘advertorials' then why does the marketing manager agree to shed the ‘advertorial' tag?” counters Mr. Nagvenkar.

In the recording, Mr. Nagvenkar can be heard telling Mr. Desai he needs some kind of written estimate or quotation to clinch the deal.

“Something yaar...so that I also have to show that somewhere no?

“Ok I'll do that,” says Mr. Desai.

An email from Mr. Desai follows. He confirms the sums of Rs. 86,400 and Rs. 50,000 for an interview in the Herald and the HCN channel respectively. Mr. Nagvenkar, posing as Bernard Costa, writes back asking for confirmation that the interview will be published in such a way that readers believe it is a news item and not an advertisement. “Once we meet in our office, we will discuss on this,” the Herald marketing manager replies, evidently wary of leaving a paper trail. Costa's answer: “Ok, ok, I will come with the cash Monday or Tuesday.”

Something to remember: SC 'endorses' sting journalism (FYI)

By Manoj Mitta, TNN Oct 18, 2011, 04.14AM IST
NEW DELHI: Five years after it had upheld the expulsion of 11 MPs in the cash-for-questions scam, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the Delhi police's bid to prosecute the two journalists who had conducted the sting operation.
As a corollary, a 2010 Delhi high court ruling that corruption can be exposed by undercover journalists without informing authorities has attained finality.
A bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam dismissed the special leave petition filed by the police against the high court verdict quashing the charge sheet in relation to Aniruddha Bahal and Suhasini Raj of cobrapost.com.
The SC agreed with the HC view that if the journalists had taken the police into confidence about their operation to expose MPs accepting bribes to ask questions in Parliament, "the respective MPs would have been given information by the police beforehand and would have been cautioned about the entire operation."
This has scuttled the police's attempt to prosecute the journalists along with the MPs and middlemen on account of their alleged failure to act as complainants before the story titled "Operation Duryodhan" was aired in December 2005. The police had tried to implicate the journalists on the ground that every person aware of the commission of an offence was obliged to inform the nearest police officer.
The implication of the SC's decision is that undercover journalists can well claim immunity under Section 24 of the Prevention of Corruption Act which stipulates that a statement made somebody who offered a bribe to a public servant "shall not subject such person to a prosecution" on the charge of abetting the offence. This is the first time the SC was to decide if they should be tried.
(TOI STORY)
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-18/india/30296637_1_suhasini-raj-sting-operation-sting-journalism

Goa Paid News Story Followup: Hoot, Mediahive, Statesman talk about 'Goa's Paid Piper' story

Hi...
Here's a few updates in the Goa's 'paid news story'.

Barring two newspaper Gomantak Times, Lokmat and the (brace yourself) Sanatan Prabhat, no other news paper in Goa published the press note issued by the Goa Union of Journalists which has also demanded a probe by the Press Council of India, into the 'paid news' story featuring the Herald newspaper. (The Navhind Times carried part of the statement; apols for missing it out earlier -- Mayabhushan) . 
Basically, the story was largely blacked out by the media here.

Two media websites the Hoot and mediahive and a national newspaper mentioned the Goa 'paid news'story in its editorial piece.So did Rajan Narayan's Goan Observer.

Please find links to the stories here.

Action demanded in Goa paid news case -- The Hoot


Paid political interview in Goa's newspaper for Rs 84,000  -- Mediahive


SLIPPERY SLOPE -- Difficult times for mass media   -- Statesman


As mentioned earlier, today (Monday Oct 31, 2011) I have filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) vis a vis the same story. I have send across a copy to the ECI, Nirvachan bhavan, New Delhi by email as well as by hard copy.

Thanks for listening in...

Mayabhushan

FOLLOW UP OF GOA'S PAID NEWS STORY: Goa Union of Journalists endorses 'public interest' sting; demands PCI, ECI probe

Hi guys,

An update to share...

The Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ), which represents over 200 working journalists in Goa during an extraordinary meeting of its committee Saturday endorsed the ‘paid news’ sting operation, exposing the unethical and corrupt phenomenon at the ‘Herald’, one of Goa’s leading newspaper.  

Please find below a press statement issued by the GUJ general secretary Vithaldas Hegde, where GUJ has also decided to write to the PCI to investigate the complaint and has directed the union’s ethics committee to conduct its own probe expeditiously.

GUJ has also asked the Goa Editor’s Guild to step up and “take appropriate action”. 

Will keep updating the blog as and when developments happen…

Regards

Mayabhushan

 GUJ PRESS STATEMENT

Following an extraordinary meeting of the executive committee held at its office here on Saturday, the Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ) has appealed to its members as well as other journalists in Goa to report to its Ethics Committee, any unethical demands if made on them by their management of newspapers and news channels in the course of their professional duties. This precaution is needed especially in view of the fast approaching Goa Assembly elections.

The GUJ executive met to discuss a complaint forwarded to it for action by journalist and GUJ member Mayabhushan Nagvekar pertaining to a complaint of "paid news" he had lodged with Press Council of India (PCI) against local newspaper Herald last week.

The GUJ executive discussed the issue and noted in its resolution that the complaint about "paid news" was a serious issue as it pertains to ethics of the profession and accepted Mayabhushan Nagvekar’s contention that the sting was undertaken in public interest and in the interest of the professional ethics.

The GUJ also noted that the malpractice of "paid news" had taken place rampantly in Goa during the 2007 Assembly elections and as reader/viewer continues to be unorganised there is no possibility of public check on the same. Therefore, it is the duty of the journalists and GUJ members to stand up against any such practices that will damage the credibility of the profession. This is the part of self-regulation.

As has been its practice pertaining to complaints of breach of professional ethics, the GUJ Executive decided to immediately handover the complaint to Ethics Committee of the GUJ to thoroughly probe the same and report to the Executive. Secondly, on its part the Executive decided to write to Press Council of India to investigate the complaint speedily. A copy of the same will also be forwarded to the Election Commission. It also decided to forward the complaint to Goa Editors’ Guild to take appropriate action.

GUJ executive noted with concern complaints presently informally coming from GUJ members regarding unethical demands from some organisations, for instance, reporters being asked to collect advertisements for their paper, which eventually compromises a
journalist’s professional integrity. These practices are equally dangerous as the ‘paid news.’ Therefore, while appealing and encouraging members and other journalists to approach Ethics Committee for any unethical demands on them, the executive has asked the Ethics Committee headed by Ashley do Rosario to probe such complaints for prima facie case and immediately take them up with the Press Council of India (PCI) and the Election Commission of India if a complaint also pertains to election-related coverage. The Ethics Committee will protect the identity/confidentiality of the complainants.

As has been its practice, the GUJ executive has decided to fully back its member over the complaint done in public interest and in the interest of the profession without passing any judgement over the allegation till it is investigated.

The GUJ has also appealed to Goa Editors’ Guild to stand up to any attempts from any management to compromise professional integrity by unethical demands to be part of “paid news” during the forthcoming elections and otherwise also. The GUJ has extended its full support to Goa Editors’ Guild in this endeavour.


Vithaldas Hegde,
General Secretary,
Goa Union of Journalists

GOA'S PAID NEWS STORY: FOLLOWING UP THE GOA'S PAID PIPER STORY

Hi,

Thanks to all those guys who wrote back in support and appreciation of the story GOA'S PAID PIPER -- Paid political interview in Goa's Herald newspaper for Rs 86,400' . 

Thanks specifically to my senior colleagues in the media like P Sainath who promised to take up this paid news case on the national forum and to noted media critic Pradyuman Maheshwari for running it on his newly launched media portal  and to Outlook editor Krishna Prasad for featuring it on his blog  (a url I have frequented in earnest often over the years).

Incidentally, only Goa related web portals like goanet, targetgoa nizgoenkar and goachronicle ran the story; a fact that I really appreciate, considering the fact that no print newspaper has done so. Perhaps… I should have paid for publishing this story … Joking of course… 

Nevertheless… Herald editor Sujay Gupta has issued a written statement on the subject to www.mxmindia.com which I am taking the liberty of reproducing here. Please find my response to it below.

 Sujay's statement

This is with reference to the complaint to the Press Council of India, by our esteemed and senior colleague in the profession for many years, Mayabhushan Nagvekar. (Para 1)

Since the matter concerns issues of editorial and journalistic propriety even though the conversations and interactions Mayabhushan, posing as one Bernard, has with our marketing Manager Tulsidas Desai, I have chosen to respond to this. (Para 2)

Firstly, I wish to emphatically deny that any editorial content which has appeared in the Herald, without the “advertorial” tag line has been paid for. In his complaint, the complainant has attached newspaper clippings of several interviews we have conducted as part of our kins and kinship series of prospective new candidates in the fray. (Para 3)

The only exception was that of Somnath Zuwarkar, whose interview we carried after his return to politics. To even suggest that these interviews were part of a paid news package is hugely defamatory. Herald will respond to these allegations urgently and appropriately in a proper forum. (Para 4)

I wish to emphasize that I have been informed by my management that Desai’s remarks, (as heard on the audio) file in relation to any assurances given to “Bernard” for disguised editorial favours is absolutely incorrect. (Para 5)

As Editor, my stated position both within and outside the organisation has been that paid content cannot be disguised as news. Whenever politicians have sent out messages, statements of their achievements and other such information, through a paid route, we have prominently stated that they are advertorials. A case in point is the birthday of Deputy Speaker Mauvin Godinho where there were more than 2 pages of “news” items about Mauvin’s career and achievements. (Para 6)

Recently there was a four page advertorial supplement Vision 2015 where the Chief Minister’s interview was carried along with information on other departments. However, Herald has not softened its attack on this government on several issues, making a clear distinction between advertisements/advertorials and editorial. (Para 7)

Herald is the only newspaper which used the tag “advertorial” on top of their news pages so that the difference between editorial and advertorial is clearly established. (Para 8)

Coming to the proposed interview of the fictitious “Bernard” in HCN, our marketing team confirms that that such interviews are conducted with clear supers entitled “SPONSORED, indicating that its an advertorial. (Para 9)

The letter/email sent by Tulsidas Desai to the fictitious Bernard also clearly states that the rates were for advertising /advertorial rates. The marketing department is within its purview of seeking advertisements and advertorials with a clear understanding that they would be treated like any paid advertisement. (Para10)

Lastly and most significantly, Editorial was not in the know of any such negotiations or discussions the marketing had with any candidate or anyone else. The stray remark that “editos people” would be in the know of any interview to HCN is also incorrect. (Para 11)

I am also clear that ultimately issues of newspaper ethics need to be addressed by the Editor directly since he is the custodian of content. At no given point of time have I allowed disguised and paid news to slip through as genuine editorial content. (Para 12)

However, it is imperative to ask if the media in Goa has done a serious introspection on whether we try hard enough to eliminate the ghost of paid news slipping through as genuine news. (Para13)

In the present case, too, it is naive to expect that the said Bernard’s interview would have been carried in any form. The final decision to run a story or not rests with me and my senior editorial colleagues so a clear distinction needs to be made between news and advertorials. The two cannot and don’t mix in The Herald. (Para 14)

If the complainant had indeed wanted to test Heralds mettle and transparency in these matters he should have tried paying the amount and getting his interview published as news and then taken us to task. (Para 15)

However, I agree that with elections around the corner, we need to be more vigilant and watchful to ensure that the media continues to function as a neutral and independent watcher and not an interested part. (Para 16) 

MY RESPONSE

Para 3: I am not on the point that “any editorial content” which has appeared in the Herald, without the ‘advertorial’ tag has been paid for. The point I am trying to make is specific. That a fictitious proposition made by me for carrying my political paid news interview in the paper, has been accepted by a senior representative of your newspaper for a price after consulting with his editorial colleagues.

The representative, Herald’s marketing manager Tulsidas Desai has also told me that Raymond D’Sa’s interview (which was published as a news interview and not as an advertorial) which was published on Oct 20 in the Herald had been paid for. It is on the basis of this information, which I have confirmed in course of the story, that I am saying that several from series of political interviews – some of which I have uploaded on the blog seem dubious and could have been published as ‘paid news’ in lieu of money.

Kins and Kinship: The choice of candidates according to the Editor is part of the newspaper’s series on ‘kins and kinship’. My question is, how do guys like Raymond D’Sa, Michael Lobo, Glenn Ticlo (whose press clipping I did not manage to locate, if any of you guys have Glenn Ticlo’s interview cutting pls do scan and send it across), Somnath Zuwarkar, Sankalp Amonkar, fit this bracket. The only two who could pass off in a series defined under ‘kin and kinship’ are Tulio de Souza and Sameer Salgaonkar, who have kin in politics namely Dr Wilfred de Souza and Anil Salgaonkar. Whose kin are the rest?

Para 4: Sujay Gupta has threatened me with defamation. I trust him to do it. The last defamation suit which Sujoy Gupta had filed was a Rs 5 billion one in 2009 in the Kolkata High court against a Goa based green blogger. Sujay was then vice president corporate communication at the Fomento Group of Industries, which operates several mines in Goa. The case he had filed in the ‘Kolkata high court’ was against Sebastian Rodrigues, an anti-mining activist, who had written about excesses of the mining company, which Sujay represented then.

Sujay had earlier tried to slip in stories in local newspapers including the Gomantak Times (GT). He had telephonically called GT's chief reporter Vithaldas Hegde -- an instance I am aware of because I was with Hegde on the other end of the phone, along with other staffers of the GT – which falsely projected Seby as a ‘naxalite’ who was whipping up unrest in the mining affected areas. The then executive editor of GT Derek Almeida and then deputy news editor Ashley do Rosario are aware of this incident as they were present when it happened.

Interestingly, Herald, the newspaper he now edits, had this to say about the entire episode.

Like in the Seby case (where attempts were made to brand him as a naxal), an attack on my credibility is something I expect now. I am only wondering how creative these guys are gonna be!

Para 6,7,8,9: If there were mechanisms existing in the Herald to route paid content as advertorials, then why does Tulsidas Desai, Herald’s marketing manager agree to shed the ‘advertorial’ tag as can be heard in the conversation with him in Tape III? Tulsidas is not some bottom rung marketing executive? He is a marketing manager and that’s a position of some responsibility. He assures me that the advertorial tag will be dropped. He also knows it is the wrong thing to do, when he says later in another conversation that he cannot put things like this categorically on paper.

(Tape III excerpts; interview with Herald marketing manager Tulsidas Desai)

Me: In interview form.. I want in interview form so that people know no...
Tulsidas: Right... In that format only, how it has appeared today no
Me: And no advertorial no?
Tulsidas: Ah?
Me: No advertorial no
Tulsidas: Advertorial only
Me: But you are not going to say advertorial no?
Tulsidas: No... Today how nothing is mentioned no? Like that only...
Me: Ok ok.. and whom should I make payments and how much?

Para 10: Precisely my point. Herald’s marketing manager Tulsidas Desai already knows that paid news is not a kosher thing. He tells me in Tape IV that he cannot put down the exact quotation for the ‘paid news interview’ on paper in the way I have asked him. He knows he is in the wrong. He is selling me a paid news slot for my ‘political campaign’ and not a slot for a paid advertisement.

Please see transcripts below.

 (Tape IV excerpts; interview with Herald marketing manager Tulsidas Desai)

 Me: On Herald. Two interviews for the same price that you mentioned. So that 86 (000) four hundred no?
Tulsidas: 86,400 right
Me: Into two.
Tulsidas: Ya ok
Me: But I want them
Tulsidas: Monday you are coming no?
Me: Ya but can you just send me a quotation? A rough quotation?
Tulsidas: No.. Actually this kind of this no... this is like a editorial kind of things no, I cant mention on the paper you know
Me: Something yaar... so that I also have to show that somewhere no?
Tulsidas: Ok I'll do that
Me: Take my email address

Para 11: Once again I would like to remind Sujay about the fact that Tulsidas here is a marketing manager not a foot-soldier salesman of the Herald. How can you disqualify his statement made during a sales pitch that the editorial people were in the know? Do Herald reps fib during their sales pitches to their clients? If the editorial was not in the know of any such negotiations, then how did Tulsidas come back to me with a price? Whose were the people he consulted in between Tape I and Tape II and Tape III before he came back to me with his final quote of Rs 86,400? He has consulted people back in the office. Who were these people with whom he talked about the rates with? Who were these guys with whom he discussed and confirmed (and later communicated to me in Tape III and Tape IV), that an interview would be carried in the newspaper as well as the cable news channel operated by Herald. You guys need to track these guys down? If you do not know, Tulsidas certainly will.

Para 12: If you have not Sujay, then someone else has. Your marketing manager himself says so.

Para 13: Point taken, but the scourge of ‘paid news’ can be tackled, if you first acknowledge that it exists in the first place. By denying its existence, in face of an admission by a senior marketing professional of the newspaper, is allowing paid news another lease of life.

Para 14: According to Tulsidas Desai, the twain have mixed. His clear reference to the fact that the Raymond D’sa interview has been paid for and published on October 20 without the ‘advertorial’ tag is testimony to the fact.

Para 15: This is sheer gall. If I had a whopping sum of Rs 86,400 bucks to shell out Sujay, it is more likely Sujay that I would have been dealing in paid news myself!!!. Establishing a senior Herald official’s intent in publishing a paid news story in return for a few phone calls, a few photo copies and CD writing expenses (hard copies submitted to the Press Council of India and the Goa Union of Journalists) is good enough for me.

GOA'S PAID PIPER -- Paid political interview in Goa's Herald newspaper for Rs 86,400

“The phenomenon of ‘paid news’ has acquired serious dimensions. Today, it goes beyond the corruption of individual journalists and media companies and has become pervasive, structured and highly organized. In the process, it is undermining democracy in India.”

By Mayabhushan Nagvenkar
These are the grave opening remarks of the Press Council of India’s (PCI) report on paid news in the Indian media, in July last year. The report compiled by the PCI was based on the findings of its sub committee which pored through evidence, in form of published articles in newspapers both vernacular and English, which were suspected as ‘paid news’ content.

The four audio files and transcripts below go a step ahead. The conversations in these audio files with the marketing manager for both Herald newspaper, Goa’s leading English daily and Herald Cable Network (HCN) a cable news channel owned by the same media group, lays bare how a typical political paid news deal is struck, especially with elections around the corner. Many in the media and other informed sections of society, would already know that piety pouting newspapers across the country have been brazenly cracking ‘editorial content for cash’ deals, but these conversations show how easy it really is to crack a paid news deal in the Indian -- and case in point here -- the media in Goa.

Buying editorial space in a newspaper is almost as easy as walking up to a store counter and buying a change of underwear.

Here we have a reputed Goan media house welcoming paid news content and dishing out a rate chart for paid political interviews, both on behalf of its English daily news paper ‘Herald’ and for its sister concern, a local cable news channel, Herald Cable Newtork (HCN). 

It is necessary to mention here, that although I am a journalist by profession, I have undertaken this ‘paid news buster’ exercise, solely as a reader of the newspaper, which I subscribe to at home. That is one of the reasons why I chose this newspaper.

The other reason being that, Herald over the last few weeks has been running dubious interview after interview of ‘potential’ candidates for the forthcoming state assembly elections which are scheduled to happen sometime next year.

A source in the Herald informed me that money was being exchanged by the newspaper’s employees – both editorial and marketing – for publishing the political interviews.

I called up the Herald boardline on October 20 posing as Bernard Costa, a fictitious person wanting to contest assembly elections from the Velim assembly constituency in south Goa. On the same day, Herald had carried another dubious and suspected paid political interview of Raymond D’Sa, who had claimed that he vying for a Congress ticket for the Cortalim assembly seat and had wanted to “serve the poor and needy” (sic).

The receptionist at the Herald gave me the number to Tulsidas Desai 9822568376 – a marketing manager at the Herald. What unfolded between Tulsidas and ‘Bernard’ (i.e. me) is represented below in form of four audio files. They are unedited phone conversations, transcripts for which are also available. Here's audio file number 2. http://youtu.be/JjhIhQSCkTw

I have already dispatched a complaint to the Press Council of India, Election Commission of India, Goa Union of Journalists as well as several media blogs, journalists and concerned civil society persons, in order to put the information I had in the public domain and with the relevant authorities.

Tulsidas Desai

Keeping the current example in context, Herald is not the only news paper which has been institutionally allowing paid news content in Goa at the moment, but I put forth this case because I could establish a connection between the editorial content and the price that is to be paid for it. There are a couple of other vernacular newspaper published from outside Goa, who have already cracked deals with a young Congress minister and it is showing in the content. The newspaper’s editor and the vernacular newspaper’s very special correspondent is involved in this particular deal.

In the Herald case too, it would be naive to believe that a marketing manager, in this case Tulsidas, can push a deal like this without the consent, tacit or otherwise, of the editorial leadership of the newspaper.

Here in the case before you, the deal Tulsidas cracked with me was to publish my interview in the Herald for Rs 86,400 (for a fifteen inch and eight column spread) and on HCN, a half an hour interview thrice a day.(audio file number 3) http://youtu.be/8U8YBT7Tv6M

And the gall of these guys to tell the interviewee to drop by with a questionnaire himself!!!!

 

 

The things to look out for in this story are:

We are not just talking about paid news in the air here. When Tulsidas is asked about the rates for political paid interviews, he mentioned the Raymond D’sa interview published in the Herald on Oct 20 and the nearabouts price the newspaper got paid for it. Tulsidas is no novice intern at the Herald, he is a marketing manager and obviously knows the paid news rate card set by the newspaper.

Raymond’s was not the only published paid political interview in print. There are several other dubious article which have been publised by the Herald earlier, which should be looked into by the Press Council of India and the newspaper’s readers. Interestingly most of these interviews were carried in the same slot, on Page four top deck.

 

There was an interview of Sankalp Amonkar, a potential Congress candidate published on October 3 also carrying the same byline.

 There was Somnath Zuwarkar, another potential Congress candidate’s interview published on September 19

Another political hopeful Sameer Salgaonkar was interviewed on September 12.

Michael Lobo who is a potential BJP candidate from Calangute constituency has been interviewed on August 15

Tulio de Souza, son in law of former deputy chief minsiter Wilfred de Souza and also a potential election candidate from the Saligao constituency has already been positioned as a winner, in perhaps one of the most lopsided ‘constituency analysis’ segment.

Not too surprising, that all the potential candidates here have one thing common other than the fact that they have featured in Herald’s suspected paid news interviews. All of them are extremely rich folks.  

How the silver earned in exchange for the paid news interviews was shared, is anybodys' guess! 


P.S. If any media persons wants to run a story on this revelation, I could send across a zip file containing all the relevant details. I am on mayabhushan@gmail.com
P.P.S. Readers, who believe the paid news needs to be addressed can spread the story and the audio files around on mail and social networking sites. 
P.P.S. If you guy wish to take up the paid news issue with Herald and want to register your protest, feel free to contact the 'people's paper' and its reps on:

Board numbers
0091-832-2224202, 2224460, 2228083/ info@oheraldo.in

Editor in chief and owner Raul Fernandes 0091 9822100188
Editor Sujay Gupta 0091 9923057937
General Manager Michael Pereira 9822122304
Marketing Manager Tulsidas Desai 9822568376


ODDS AND ENDS: 
Youtube links to four unedited paids news audio files with transcripts if you click the "Show More" scroll: 

Paid News I
Paid News II
Paid News III
Paid News IV




Paid News quotation sent to me by Herald's marketing manager Tulsidas Desai from his official email ID (Please read bottom up)


from Bernard Costa bennygoa15@gmail.com
to TULSHIDAS DESAI <td@herald-goa.com>
date Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 1:04 PM
subject Re: Advertisement Proposal from H C N &
HERALD
mailedby
gmail.com
hide details Oct 22 (3 days
ago)
 
Ok ok I will come with the cash on Monday or Tuesday
- Hide quoted text -
 
On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 1:02 PM, TULSHIDAS DESAI <td@herald-goa.com> wrote:
once we meet in our office will discuss on this.
 
On 22 October 2011 12:48, Bernard Costa <bennygoa15@gmail.com> wrote:
I got it Tulsidas. Thank you. I am happy with the rate you have quoted.
Just for clarity sake, I do not want it published like an advertisement or advertorial but
like a news interview so that your readers know it is news and not an ad.
Please revert on this point
and thank you again
Bernard
Viva Velim!
 
On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 11:51 AM, TULSHIDAS DESAI <td@herald-goa.com> wrote:
To,
Dear Bernard,
with reference to our telephonic conversation about your projection as a part of your
election campaign first instance we will arrange to shoot your 30 minutes one to one
interview & will telecast 3 times within one particular day & will announce it on Herald
as a press note to drive peoples attention. We will bill you Rs. 50,000/- for the same as a
production & telecasting charges.
Besides as a part of same campaign we will arrange a space of 15 c.m. x 8 col. color advt
of your interview on page no. 2 on HERALD @ Rs.86,400/-. Payment to be issued in
advance.
--
TULSHIDAS DESAI
Manager - Marketing
HERALD & H C N
Mob : 9822568376
E-mail : td@herald-goa.com

TRANSCRIPTS I to IV

Paid News I - First Call

Transcript

Conversation with Tulsidas Desai, marketing manager Herald

Date: Oct 20, 2011

Phone contacted: 9822568376

Me: Hello

Tulsidas: Ya…

Me: Err… Mr Tulsidas

Tulsidas: Right

Me: My name is Bernard Costa, I am calling from Velim

Tulsidas: Velim ya…

Me: I am contesting elections from Velim… I want to and your office gave me your number

Tulsidas: Ok

Me: Er… I want an interview in the Herald.

Tulsidas: On Herald? Or HCN channel?

Me: On Herald… Herald…

Tulsidas:  Ok

Me: So how do I go about it?

Tulsidas: What kind of interview, because there are two types of interviews. If it a paid one editorial… advertorial interview can come.

Me: Ok how much will it cost me?

Tulsidas: If it is a quarter page in black and white it will be 36000 (rupees)

Me: Ok

Tulsidas: And if it is colour then it is double.

Me: Thirty six and double… Any discounts I can get?

Tulsidas: No.. 36000 is the net you have to give for black and white

Me: For an interview?

Tulsidas: For an interview

Me: And how do I make the payment, where do I make the payment?

Tulsidas: You can make the payment on Herald publications private limited

Me: Ok ok.. and this is a paid interview no? I can give you the questions?

Tulsidas: Ya ya you can give me questions.

Me: Ok ok

Tulsidas: This will be like a advertorial, advertising come editorial…

Me: No no like today you have interview no of er… my friend from Cortalim Raymond

Tulsidas: Ah Raymond D’Sa

Me: Like that I want an interview. Money is not a problem yaar, but how do we do it?

Tulsidas: Ok I’ll just I’ll just speak with my concerned people and get back to you on this

Me: ok fine ya ya..

Tulsidas: Bye

Paid News II - Second Call

Transcript

Conversation with Tulsidas Desai, marketing manager Herald

Date: Oct 20, 2011

Phone contacted: 9822568376

(phone Ringing)

Tulsidas: Hello

Me: Mr Tulsidas…

Tulsidas: Ya

Me: Bernard

Tulsidas: Ya tell me.

Me: I spoke to you today morning.

Tulsidas: Ya right what happened no… Time being I think it is very much costlier kind of thing which I got to know you know

Me: Ok

Tulsidas: It is in terms of more than lakhs of rupees kind of

Me: For one interview?

Tulsidas: Vhoi.. ya. That is what I heard, so I thought not to take kind of this thing. What I can help is that within a limited this thing... I can take a half an hour interview which will be shown three times on the TV

Me: No… on HCN no HCN is not very powerful, Herald is powerful no…

Tulsidas: But when your news will come on Herald that watch HCN today at so and so time for the one to one interview of your candidature.

Me: Actually money is not a problem, can you tell me how much so that I can prepare myself?

Tulsidas: No they are telling a huge amount that is what I am really thing this

Me: Approximate. Tell me approximate how much approximate na. If I am willing then I can might as well go ahead with it.

Tulsidas:  Best thing know they were saying is approximately two lakh (rupees).

Me: So Raymond’s interview was two lakh (rupees).

Tulsidas: Ya ya ya ya ya…

Me: Ok ok ok… Actually one interview I would not mind spending that much.

Tulsidas: Ok I will just check with them.

Me: Ya ya ya

Tulsidas: I’ll just get back to you…

Me: Ya ya ya ya.

Paid News III - Third Call

Transcript

Conversation with Tulsidas Desai, marketing manager Herald

Date: Oct 20, 2011

Phone contacted: 9822568376

Tulsidas: Hello

Me: Hello

Tulsidas: Ya Bernard

Me: Tulsidas I was traveling, I am sorry I missed you. Ya tell me.

Tulsidas: Ok.. This is what we decided no. What we can plan like you know. First we’ll do one to one interview on TV on HCN TV and after that episode next week, we can carry the same kind of write up… how it is appeared today no…

Me: In interview form.. I want in interview form so that people know no…

Tulsidas: Right… In that format only, how it has appeared today no

Me: And no advertorial no?

Tulsidas: Ah?

Me: No advertorial no

Tulsidas: Advertorial only

Me: But you are not going to say advertorial no?

Tulsidas: No… Today how nothing is mentioned no? Like that only…

Me: Ok ok.. and whom should I make payments and how much?

Tulsidas: See the HCN thing you have to make a payment of 50,000 thousand (rupees)

Me: Ok

Tulsidas: And this particular size for Herald, it will be 86,400 (rupees).

Me: 86400 for half page like it has appeared today.

Tulsidas: Actually it is not half page, it is fifteen centimeter height eight columns.

Me: I don’t know… its seemed like half page…

Tulsidas: No no no no

Me: It will be more than half page.

Tulsidas: No this is little lesser than half page… Todays… todays.

Me: Ok ok. And whom should I contact for the interview?

Tulsidas: No… if you come to… first you can prepare yourself with the questionnaire and all

Me: Ok ok

Tulsidas: And then we’ll fix up your interview in our studio in Panjim

Me: Ok.. hanh

Tulsidas: Ok HCN studio

Me: Yes

Tulsidas: And once that interview is taken with that only we can get question and answers positively for you benefit

Me: Ok ok

Tulsidas: and that will appear as a… your interview on paper

Me: Ok ok… and when can I make an appointment for this?

Tulsidas: This you can tomorrow…

Me: Sometime… I might be a little out over the weekend. So Monday maybe? Monday… Tuesday?

Tulsidas: No problem we’ll fix it on Monday Tuesday… no problem.

Me: And I will get to meet the editor and all with this no, so that I can also tell him what I am doing for this?

Tulsidas: No… that is what when your interview… one to one interview will be taken on the HCN channel, so that is from our editorial people only no?

Me: Ok ok ok ok

Tulsidas: Only you have to prepare from side which kind of questions you will like to answer comfortably

Me: I will come with a list of questions which will help project my image better for elections.

Tulsidas: No that is the reason. Monday you ring me up and I will fix up appointment for interview within a couple of days and before you come down here, you have to send me a soft copy of the questions

Me: So then Monday we do it for HCN and Tuesday Wednesday we can do it for Herald.

Tulsidas: Herald we’ll keep one four five days gap.

Me: Ya ya because it is not good immediately.

Tulsidas: It should not hammer the this thing no

Me: So I’ll get in touch with you on Monday or Tuesday

Tulsidas: No better you do one thing. Monday personally you come to my office

Me: Monday I will come to Panaji… You have been most helpful.

Tulsidas: Panjim Panjim… Our office is in Campal trade centre

Me: Ya ya I know, I came to meet somebody one day it is shifted I think now.

Tulsidas: Ya Campal trade centre it is

Me: Ya I will see you there. Thank you so much

Tulsidas: Ya…welcome bye

Me: Bye

Paid News IV Fourth Call

Transcript

Conversation with Tulsidas Desai, marketing manager Herald

Date: Oct 22, 2011

Phone contacted: 9822568376

Tulsidas: Hello

Me: Tulsidas

Tulsidas: Ya.

Me: Bernard

Tulsidas: Ya Bernard.

Me: How are you man

Tulsidas: Fine Fine

Me: Ok see I spoke to my campaign manager yesterday and he said he wants two interviews, one maybe this week… next week and one maybe four to five weeks later

Tulsidas: Interview

Me: On Herald. Two interviews for the same price that you mentioned. So that 86 (000) four hundred no?

Tulsidas: 86,400 right

Me: Into two.

Tulsidas: Ya ok         

Me: But I want them

Tulsidas: Monday you are coming no?

Me: Ya but can you just send me a quotation? A rough quotation?

Tulsidas: No.. Actually this kind of this no… this is like a editorial kind of things no, I cant mention on the paper you know

Me: Something yaar... so that I also have to show that somewhere no?

Tulsidas: Ok I’ll do that

Me: Take my email address

Tulsidas: You text me on this because I am driving.

Me: And er… listen how do I make the payment?

Tulsidas: You can make the cheque payment... that is no problem

Me: Cash is ok… because it is election expenditure and stuff like that

Tulsidas: No problem… no problem

Me: Cash I’ll come with cash

Tulsidas: Election expenditure you cannot put now no because election expenditure start in the code of conduct

Me: I have to make it my books also no somewhere?

Tulsidas: Ok ok

Me: I will come with cash on Monday… Monday or Tuesday. I’ll give you a call ya

Tulsidas: Ok

Me: I will just message you the email

Tulsidas: Ok ok

Glossary

Me: Mayabhushan Nagvenkar… Herald reader

Tulsidas Desai: Tulsidas Desai is a senior marketing executive who represents Herald newspaper and the Herald Cable Network

HCN: Herald Cable Network, a local cable news channel operating in Goa.

Herald: Goa’s leading English language daily

Bernard Costa: Mayabhushan posing as a fictitious individual who wants to contest elections from the Velim assembly constituency in south Goa.

Raymond D’Sa: A politician from the Cortalim assembly constituency who is lobbying for a Congress ticket and whose interview was published in the Herald on October 20.

Campal Trade Centre: A building complex located in central Panaji which houses the Herald office.