Tracking pseudo-journalism: Better pay, job security and emphasis on ethics could help misguided media persons

Editor’s Note: The threat to the sanctity of journalism has not been more serious in these challenging times. With the menace of fake news already rampant, thanks to easy access to social media, there is another legion of individuals who now pose as pseudo-journalists, threatening the very edifice of journalism — trust. In a series of stories, reporters from Tier-I and Tier-II cities in India will examine self-proclaimed journalists and their modus operandi to blackmail and extort money by abusing their ill-gotten power. Rohtak: In April, the Karnataka Police arrested three journalists working for a regional weekly on charges of extortion after they allegedly coerced a Koteshwara-based businessman to pay them Rs 1 lakh to avoid publication of his ‘misdeeds’ in the tabloid. Two others journalists were arrested in a similar case in May after the Mumbai Police’s anti-extortion cell found out that the duo was allegedly trying to extort Rs 40 lakh from an engineer. The case came to light after the complainant alleged that the two scribes, working for a local publication, tried to extort the amount under the pretext of not publishing stories against him. The above-mentioned cases are not an anomaly. Several such incidents, many unreported, are causing a dent in the credibility of the fourth estate. According to norms of journalistic conduct laid down by the Press Council of India, “Blackmailing or extortion of money from people under threat of maligning them through the columns of newspaper amounts to gross violation of journalistic norms.” However, no punitive actions have been suggested by PCI against journalists involved in such designs, barring cancellation of their accreditation card — if the misconduct is proved. Mushrooming media portals a concern? TR Gopalakrishnan, former editor-in-charge at The Week Magazine, spoke about the alarming trend and said that the situation was relatively better in reputed media organisations due to checks and balances. He claimed that issues at low-key media houses like irregular salaries or asking for advertisement often leads to such journalistic misconduct. “The editorial policy decides the kind of content being published in news channel or papers. If a media house/organisation pushes journalists to provide content without satisfying their monetary expectations, it brings into picture practices like extortion and blackmail. There is no check on authenticity and credibility of journalists, particularly in tier-2 or tier-3 cities,” Gopalakrishnan said. [caption id=“attachment_4683271” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Sunit Mukherjee, a professor at the Journalism and Mass Communication department in Maharshi Dayanand University. Image: 101Reporters[/caption] Atul Chandra, former resident editor with The Times of India’s Lucknow bureau, said that in the face of such complaints, organisations like The Times of India first affirm the seriousness of the issue, following which the said employee is given due time to explain themselves. If, however, they fail to prove their innocence, they are sacked. “Taking action against stringers is easier for organisations compared to regular employees, but regular employees are also not spared in case of violation of media ethics,” Chandra added. Organisations also opt for background checks before hiring journalists, which often acts as a filter against hiring suspicious elements, Chandra said. Hitender Rao, assistant editor at Hindustan Times, Chandigarh bureau, said the problem is much more severe in the vernacular media, where journalists are poorly paid. “Often, so-called journalists start publishing a few hundred copies of their own two-to-four page leaflets to lend weight to their nuisance value, often ending in extortion and blackmail. In case of an established media house, an aggrieved person can approach the editor of the publication to complain against extortion or blackmailing, but the only way to check such practices with regards to individual-controlled publications is to lodge a police complaint,” said Rao. Ajay Lathar, a senior journalist at Navbharat Times in Gurgaon, attributed the sorry state of affairs in journalism to its commercialisation by media groups. “Most of them (media houses) are not ready to pay minimum wages to their employees, which leads to such incidents. Scribes practice more of blackmailing and less of journalism at web portals and channels mushrooming (across the country),” Lathar added. Fixed minimum wages, job security could help Veteran journalists from Jammu feel the need of a law to be framed that fixes wage of journalists so that they are not exploited by news organisations. “It is also the insecurity of jobs in media houses that forces a journalist towards malpractices. Job security and handsome pay could do away with corrupt practices among journalists,” said SP Sharma, a Jammu-based journalist who has worked with with various publications over the last three decades. The compulsion to generate revenue from advertisements is a major reason why scribes are choosing to take the easy way out, said Delhi-based journalist Pawan Bansal. He also said that there are people who enter the profession with the intention to earn easy money using the clout of a media person. Bansal, who has earlier worked for reputed newspapers like The Indian Express and Jansatta, suggested that the Editors Guild of India could be helpful in tackling the menace of blackmail and extortion practiced by members of the profession. Sunit Mukherjee, a professor at the Journalism and Mass Communication department in Rohtak’s Maharshi Dayanand University, stressed why media ethics is an essential component of media studies universally. “In the United States, there is a Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, which is to be followed by professional journalists. The four tenets of this code encapsulate what is considered the hallmarks of responsible and ethical journalism,” he said. Mukherjee said that the media is the prime source of information on the performance of political parties, institutions, and the governments in democracy. “If the media groups are challenged with an ideological or political bias, or corporate greed, their quality and credibility will be badly affected, which in turn will degrade the democratic ecosystem,” he added. Superintendent of Police at Jhajjar, Pankaj Nain, said though there is no separate law that deals with extortion threats by journalists, people should lodge complaints against such acts under extortion Sections 384-387 of the Indian Penal Code. Retired deputy superintendent of police Maharaj Singh said that the police deal with such cases with sensitivity. “We ask the complainant to produce the evidence backing his/her allegations so that action can be taken as per the law. Since journalists enjoy clout in society, it becomes necessary for police to double check that a complaint about extortion holds truth,” Singh said. Sujit Nehra, an advocate at the Supreme Court, said that if a journalist is proved to be guilty of extortion charges, they can be imprisoned for up to three years. In case of defamation, the imprisonment term is two years with a fine on the offender. For threatening another person with damaging their reputation, an offender can be booked under Section 503 and there is a provision of imprisonment for two years with fine. This article is the final part of a series. Read previous parts here and here. (Sat Singh is a Rohtak - based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters)