A WEB OF FAVORS
Launch a website and reap a harvest from government ads seems to be the new mantra for MP journalists. By doing so, they have become PR agents and are undermining the profession…
By Rakesh Dixit in Bhopal
Web journalism might be viewed as the future of media business. But in Madhya Pradesh, it smacks of a scandal. For some time now, media watchers in the state have been speculating about the quantum of largesse the Shivraj Singh government has doled out to “loyal” journalists to run websites. The state’s public relations (PR) department has doggedly denied information about the number of sites and the money paid to them through advertisements. Right to Information applications by journalists to ferret out information in this regard have proved futile.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan addressing a press conference in New Delhi.
Eventually, a question raised by Congress MLA Bala Bachchan in the state assembly on December 8 forced the government to put out the facts. These were shocking even by the egregious standard of media appeasement in Madhya Pradesh. The government’s reply was contained in over 50 pages.
`93-CR LARGESSE
The minister for PR informed the assembly that his department paid `93 crore as advertisements to over 600 websites in the last three years. Besides, it gave over `50 crore as grants to more than 100 NGOs being run either by journalists or their spouses/relatives or BJP sympathizers in the same period. Employees of the PR department also have NGOs registered in their relatives’ names. These NGOs are supposed to popularize government schemes and policies through various communication forms such as music, drama and the visual media.
Beneficiaries can be divided into four categories—out-of-job scribes and retired publicity department officers without any other known sources of income, in-job journalists with many sources of income, relatives of journalists and PR department employees, journalists having more than one website with same address and BJP/RSS sympathizers having no journalism experience at all.
A majority of the registered websites are non-functional. Of the functional ones, nearly 80 percent have not updated content for years. Only government advertisements in them are regularly updated.
Surprisingly, a majority of the registered websites are non-functional and violate the requisite norms of displaying the names of the domain administrator and owner on the websites. Of the functional ones, nearly 80 percent have not updated their contents for several months to years. Only government advertisements in them are regularly updated. Original content is conspicuously absent in 90 percent of these websites. They only upload government press notes from the PR department’s website, MPinfo.org. Some of the functional websites include MPpost.com, socialmedia.com, whispersinthecorridors.com, Bhopalpost.com and Bichchu.com.
UNREGULATED SECTOR
Those familiar with “web racketeering” say no rules or regulations apply in releasing advertisements to websites. The PR department does have an advertisement policy for newspapers/magazines and electronic channels. But websites get advertisements on the whims and fancies of the department’s top brass and their political masters. The department’s annual report indicates that the only criterion for advertisements to websites is that they should upload the state government’s press releases for viewing on priority.
On the quantum of advertisement money to websites, the disparity is glaring. One famous website on bureaucracy has cornered advertisements worth `18 lakh in the last three years. However, the average amount given to websites in the last three years is between `8 lakh and `10 lakh. This varies according to the website owner’s ability to peddle his influence with the government.
In the wake of a row over arbitrary distribution of advertisements, PR commissioner Anupam Rajan is now toying with the idea of framing a policy on advertisement to websites. The government of India’s advertisement policy is being examined in this regard. A minimum number of hits on the websites is likely to be considered essential for approving advertisements.
However, the department’s officers say the commissioner is well meaning but helpless before a nexus in the department that draws its power from the chief minister’s patronage. The real boss who calls the shots is principal secretary SK Mishra, who is the most trusted confidante of Chouhan.
Mamta Yadav, a web journalist, says well-known journalists have managed to gobble up several crores in the name of advertisements to websites run by them, their spouses or relatives. “On the other hand, genuine web journalists like me barely get `10,000 to `15,000 a month as government advertisement,” she said. Her portal, Malhar Media, is an honorable exception in the huge maze of bogus portals and websites.
FLEECING GOVERNMENT
Freelance journalist Shurie Niazi, who has been trying to expose this racket for a long time, says launching a website is the easiest way to fleece the PR department. Niazi tried hard to glean information about websites through RTI but his attempts were thwarted. He said that websites require very low investment. It barely takes a few thousands of rupees to set up a portal or a website. Yearly maintenance costs only a few thousands. Moreover, the website owner is not expected to do much of content uploading /downloading to claim advertisements. One person can be engaged to administer several websites. And this is precisely what several web journalists have done.
Web and portal journalism was not in vogue till 2010. Only a few journalists had websites and they were reasonably upright. Veteran journalist Dr Suresh Mehrotra is one of them. His website whispersinthecorridor.com attracted a sizeable number of government advertisements, both from the state and the public sector.
Aping him, many more out-of-job journalists in the state launched websites. The state government duly obliged them with regular advertisements that on an average ranged from `15,000 to `25,000 per month. Seeing the easy income senior journalists earned through websites, racketeers in the media were lured to do the same. Websites proliferated as unscrupulous scribes launched websites.
When the Vyapam scam began to singe Chouhan’s image, a sizeable number of journalists were quick to exploit the chief minister’s sense of insecurity. Setting up websites was one of them.
KINGPINS OF RACKET
Sources say that three persons are alleged to be the main facilitators in the website rip-off. The triumvirate is tasked by the chief minister to manage the media. They ensure favours to journalists in the form of money or other benefits.
Veteran journalists recall that the degeneration in the media’s integrity in Madhya Pradesh began from Arjun Singh’s tenure as chief minister in 1980. Successive CMs carried on the dubious practice of buying susceptible media with favors, including cash, government house allotments, gifting plots and allowing them to make money through transfers-postings, etc.
But many allege that Chouhan has crossed all limits. His penchant for buying journalists has resulted in a serious crisis of credibility for the media in the state. Journalists have to stop accepting the CM’s largesse if the profession has to regain respectability.
Launch a website and reap a harvest from government ads seems to be the new mantra for MP journalists. By doing so, they have become PR agents and are undermining the profession…
By Rakesh Dixit in Bhopal
Web journalism might be viewed as the future of media business. But in Madhya Pradesh, it smacks of a scandal. For some time now, media watchers in the state have been speculating about the quantum of largesse the Shivraj Singh government has doled out to “loyal” journalists to run websites. The state’s public relations (PR) department has doggedly denied information about the number of sites and the money paid to them through advertisements. Right to Information applications by journalists to ferret out information in this regard have proved futile.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan addressing a press conference in New Delhi.
Eventually, a question raised by Congress MLA Bala Bachchan in the state assembly on December 8 forced the government to put out the facts. These were shocking even by the egregious standard of media appeasement in Madhya Pradesh. The government’s reply was contained in over 50 pages.
`93-CR LARGESSE
The minister for PR informed the assembly that his department paid `93 crore as advertisements to over 600 websites in the last three years. Besides, it gave over `50 crore as grants to more than 100 NGOs being run either by journalists or their spouses/relatives or BJP sympathizers in the same period. Employees of the PR department also have NGOs registered in their relatives’ names. These NGOs are supposed to popularize government schemes and policies through various communication forms such as music, drama and the visual media.
The minister for PR informed the assembly that his department paid `93 crore as advertisements to over 600 websites in the last three years. Besides, it gave over `50 crore as grants to more than 100 NGOs being run either by journalists or their spouses/relatives or BJP sympathizers in the same period. Employees of the PR department also have NGOs registered in their relatives’ names. These NGOs are supposed to popularize government schemes and policies through various communication forms such as music, drama and the visual media.
Beneficiaries can be divided into four categories—out-of-job scribes and retired publicity department officers without any other known sources of income, in-job journalists with many sources of income, relatives of journalists and PR department employees, journalists having more than one website with same address and BJP/RSS sympathizers having no journalism experience at all.
A majority of the registered websites are non-functional. Of the functional ones, nearly 80 percent have not updated content for years. Only government advertisements in them are regularly updated.
Surprisingly, a majority of the registered websites are non-functional and violate the requisite norms of displaying the names of the domain administrator and owner on the websites. Of the functional ones, nearly 80 percent have not updated their contents for several months to years. Only government advertisements in them are regularly updated. Original content is conspicuously absent in 90 percent of these websites. They only upload government press notes from the PR department’s website, MPinfo.org. Some of the functional websites include MPpost.com, socialmedia.com, whispersinthecorridors.com, Bhopalpost.com and Bichchu.com.
UNREGULATED SECTOR
Those familiar with “web racketeering” say no rules or regulations apply in releasing advertisements to websites. The PR department does have an advertisement policy for newspapers/magazines and electronic channels. But websites get advertisements on the whims and fancies of the department’s top brass and their political masters. The department’s annual report indicates that the only criterion for advertisements to websites is that they should upload the state government’s press releases for viewing on priority.
Those familiar with “web racketeering” say no rules or regulations apply in releasing advertisements to websites. The PR department does have an advertisement policy for newspapers/magazines and electronic channels. But websites get advertisements on the whims and fancies of the department’s top brass and their political masters. The department’s annual report indicates that the only criterion for advertisements to websites is that they should upload the state government’s press releases for viewing on priority.
On the quantum of advertisement money to websites, the disparity is glaring. One famous website on bureaucracy has cornered advertisements worth `18 lakh in the last three years. However, the average amount given to websites in the last three years is between `8 lakh and `10 lakh. This varies according to the website owner’s ability to peddle his influence with the government.
In the wake of a row over arbitrary distribution of advertisements, PR commissioner Anupam Rajan is now toying with the idea of framing a policy on advertisement to websites. The government of India’s advertisement policy is being examined in this regard. A minimum number of hits on the websites is likely to be considered essential for approving advertisements.
However, the department’s officers say the commissioner is well meaning but helpless before a nexus in the department that draws its power from the chief minister’s patronage. The real boss who calls the shots is principal secretary SK Mishra, who is the most trusted confidante of Chouhan.
Mamta Yadav, a web journalist, says well-known journalists have managed to gobble up several crores in the name of advertisements to websites run by them, their spouses or relatives. “On the other hand, genuine web journalists like me barely get `10,000 to `15,000 a month as government advertisement,” she said. Her portal, Malhar Media, is an honorable exception in the huge maze of bogus portals and websites.
FLEECING GOVERNMENT
Freelance journalist Shurie Niazi, who has been trying to expose this racket for a long time, says launching a website is the easiest way to fleece the PR department. Niazi tried hard to glean information about websites through RTI but his attempts were thwarted. He said that websites require very low investment. It barely takes a few thousands of rupees to set up a portal or a website. Yearly maintenance costs only a few thousands. Moreover, the website owner is not expected to do much of content uploading /downloading to claim advertisements. One person can be engaged to administer several websites. And this is precisely what several web journalists have done.
Freelance journalist Shurie Niazi, who has been trying to expose this racket for a long time, says launching a website is the easiest way to fleece the PR department. Niazi tried hard to glean information about websites through RTI but his attempts were thwarted. He said that websites require very low investment. It barely takes a few thousands of rupees to set up a portal or a website. Yearly maintenance costs only a few thousands. Moreover, the website owner is not expected to do much of content uploading /downloading to claim advertisements. One person can be engaged to administer several websites. And this is precisely what several web journalists have done.
Web and portal journalism was not in vogue till 2010. Only a few journalists had websites and they were reasonably upright. Veteran journalist Dr Suresh Mehrotra is one of them. His website whispersinthecorridor.com attracted a sizeable number of government advertisements, both from the state and the public sector.
Aping him, many more out-of-job journalists in the state launched websites. The state government duly obliged them with regular advertisements that on an average ranged from `15,000 to `25,000 per month. Seeing the easy income senior journalists earned through websites, racketeers in the media were lured to do the same. Websites proliferated as unscrupulous scribes launched websites.
When the Vyapam scam began to singe Chouhan’s image, a sizeable number of journalists were quick to exploit the chief minister’s sense of insecurity. Setting up websites was one of them.
KINGPINS OF RACKET
Sources say that three persons are alleged to be the main facilitators in the website rip-off. The triumvirate is tasked by the chief minister to manage the media. They ensure favours to journalists in the form of money or other benefits.
Veteran journalists recall that the degeneration in the media’s integrity in Madhya Pradesh began from Arjun Singh’s tenure as chief minister in 1980. Successive CMs carried on the dubious practice of buying susceptible media with favors, including cash, government house allotments, gifting plots and allowing them to make money through transfers-postings, etc.
Sources say that three persons are alleged to be the main facilitators in the website rip-off. The triumvirate is tasked by the chief minister to manage the media. They ensure favours to journalists in the form of money or other benefits.
Veteran journalists recall that the degeneration in the media’s integrity in Madhya Pradesh began from Arjun Singh’s tenure as chief minister in 1980. Successive CMs carried on the dubious practice of buying susceptible media with favors, including cash, government house allotments, gifting plots and allowing them to make money through transfers-postings, etc.
But many allege that Chouhan has crossed all limits. His penchant for buying journalists has resulted in a serious crisis of credibility for the media in the state. Journalists have to stop accepting the CM’s largesse if the profession has to regain respectability.
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