Press Council Received 468 'Paid News' Complaints In Four Years: Centre (image credit: Timeline)
The number of paid news complaints across the country has shown a significant rise in the past four years, wherein Press Council of India (PCI) has received a total of 468 complaints since 2021-22, the Government data shows.
The data was given by Minister Of State For Information And Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan, in response to an unstarred question raised by BJP MP Chandra Prakash Joshi in Lok Sabha concerning cases of paid news during each of the last three years and current year.
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The PCI has received 74 cases in 2021-22, and increased to 28 in 2023-24. The data also shows that from 2024 to as of now, 290 cases were recorded, marking the highest number in the data provided. Of these, 13 complaints of paid news in 2021-2022 and 111 complaints in 2024-25 were from the state of Rajasthan.
credit: digital sansad/Lok Sabha
Dr Murugan stated that PCI probes the cases of paid news reported by the Election Commission or the general public under Regulation 14 of the Press Council (Procedure for Inquiry) Regulations, 1979. Aside from this, PCI takes Suo-motu cognizance under Regulation 13 on observing any grave violation of norms on paid news by the newspapers, Minister added.
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The Council takes action against the erring print media on case to case basis after following due procedure prescribed under Press Council of India Act, 1978 and if satisfied that it is necessary to do so warns, admonishes or censures the newspaper, news agency or editor/ journalist or disapprove the conduct of the editor or the journalist, the government said in the Parliament.
Minister also stated that Election Commission of India (ECI) has established mechanism at the national, state and district levels to receive complaints relating to ‘Paid News’ and take action thereon.
