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.” 

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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.”