Declare paid news an electoral malpractice, say parties
New Delhi, March 13: Senior leaders of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Saturday suggested amending the Representation of People's Act (RPA) to declare paid news an electoral malpractice. At a seminar on paid news organised by the Editors Guild of India and the Indian Women's Press Corps, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj (BJP), CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat and Congress spokesman Manish Tewari called for steps to check the malpractice, which had been widely noticed in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
The suggestion to declare paid news an electoral malpractice came from Karat, who said self-regulation by the media would not be enough to solve the problem. The suggestion was supported by the other two parties. "Paid news should be declared an electoral malpractice. If existing laws do not allow this, then suitable changes can be made," he said, noting that the model code of conduct for elections does not cover the problem. Sushma Swaraj said that law would need to be amended to categorise paid news as an electoral malpractice. Citing the example of her own election from Vidisha, she said her media officials were approached with packages of Rs 1 crore.
