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