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.