on paid news
Prima facie paid news looks unethical and immoral to me, but this issue is not so simplistic to condemn. Tell me before paid news, was media not getting share money during the election. yes it was, but not in white, it was in black.Media barons or big correspondents used to get big purse from the political leaders during the election time along with their fooding lodging arrangement. This was because all elections have huge budget and out of this budget publicity budget is one of the major items of their expense. Secondly media running require lots of money, whether it is print or electronic. so in that respect if media is trying to get its cost and share in the publicity budget of the contensting candidate or political parties, how should we condemn it. I always plea, our media should be granted constitutional status of fourth estate, it will automatically solve all the issue involved with the mass media, but there is poverty of thinking over that.
so in given circumstances, media cost will have to meet out, if it is being met through white money, that is better than black money which is not being revealed. it is also attentionabLe here during election time all government patronage to media through advertisement is stopped, so in this case no any other option left to media to sustain it. this is issue which require huge debate and deliberations over it.