(a) whether the Government has got information regarding certain cases of paid news during various elections in the country or otherwise during the last three years including the current year;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the action taken against the erring media companies and the people involved in it and those benefitted from it; and
(d) the corrective measures taken by the Government to check the cases of paid news?
THE MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE; MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING; AND MINISTER OF HEAVY INDUSTRIES AND PUBLIC ENTERPRISES
[SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR]
(a) to (d): The Election Commission of India (ECI) has informed that a large number of cases of paid news have been reported to it during the year 2017 to 2019 in the General Election to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies as under:
General elections to No. of cases reported
State Legislative Assemblies 799
Lok Sabha - 2019 4302
ECI has a well structured mechanism at the national, state and district levels to receive complaints relating to ‘Paid News’ and take necessary remedial action. The expenditure involved in these cases is included in the election expenditure of the candidates against which the paid news cases are confirmed.
Once the cases are decided / established as Paid news, ECI refers the cases of Print and Electronic media to PCI and News Broadcasting Standard Authority (NBSA) respectively for taking necessary action in the matter.
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