Goa Newspaper offers 'positive' news coverage deal to offshore casino industry. The Price: Rs. 1 crore advertising per month. All this and more on spycam video
Journalism’s pen and ink Have begun to stink And sold For casinos’ pot of gold The video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2UxMKy7pTg&feature=share JACKPOT JOURNALISM: HARDCORE HERALD AND IT'S HARD'CRORE' NEWS BY MAYABHUSHAN NAGVENKAR The goings-on in this 38-minute long video, shot on a spy cam, may have just placed a section of the media in Goa on a new summit of spectacular depravity. The video, shot sometime in early 2015, shows how a leading media house in Goa promises to stop ‘negative’ reportage and instead write positive news stories on the state's infamous casino industry in return for either a hefty advertising package of Rs. 25 lakh per casino per month or by simply forking over Rs. 1 crore a month “just like that”. They call this dubious modus operandi something else in modern crime classics like Ram Gopal Verma's ‘Satya’ and ‘D’. Herald Group’s assistant general manager (Sales) Advait Desai is seen and heard conveying the message from the newspaper's management (Advait names general manager Michael Pereira on several occasions in the video, at times on his own volition and sometimes on being asked) to a casino operator in the video as the person on whose alleged behalf, he's relaying the message to the casino industry. The sum of the Advait's message is a promise of 'positive' news coverage of the casino industry in return for an advertising package of Rs. 25 per lakh, per offshore casino, per month or forking out the money "just like that" as the casino operator puts it. There were four operational offshore casinos in Goa, at the time the conversation was shot on spycam in the office of a casino operator, who from the brief glimpses of his side profile, appears to be the head honcho of the Casino Pride group Srinivas Naik. The deal basically works out to Rs. 1 crore a month from casino operators; the price for "positive coverage" of news related to the offshore casino casinos in Goa, primarily sired by the Congress party and later adopted with glee by the BJP. The contents of the video leaves me with very little to say. What can one say when the casino operator in the video, refers to the tactics employed by the newspaper's bosses as “extortion” and “bribery” and yet the newspaper's deputy general manager (sales) not only not protests, but actually acknowledges the insinuation in the video. I am not even saying that the contents of this video reminds me about an incident in 2012, when an editor and editorial director of Zee News were arrested after a sting caught them demanding Rs. 100 crore worth ads to drop news stories which linked the Jindal Group to the Coalgate scam. But it is something else to witness an act like this unfolding in your own backyard and to see for yourself how a regional, organic newspaper seemingly crusading against the particular cash-rich, but tainted casino industry, is actually keen on allegedly cracking backend deals for ‘positive' news coverage and in the process selling out their none-too-wise readers lock stock and barrel. A candid Advait, unaware that he is being taped by the casino boss, also mentions how stories filed by reporters against questionable real estate projects were dropped from the newspaper allegedly at the instance of general manager Michael Pereira. The sales manager also blames Herald’s reporters, claiming they allegedly extort money by filing damning news reports, as can be heard in the video. As a disclosure I would like to mention, that while the conversation appears to have happened sometime in early 2015 (the properties of the video file suggests the video was made in February last year), I landed a copy of the video by a stroke of chance last month. I am taking the liberty of putting the same in public domain so that news readers can see for themselves what factors drive news content in the times we live in. It took me a few days to process the contents, transcribe it and cut the video into segments. The segments will be uploaded to YouTube over the next couple of days. The segments are shorter clips and make for convenient viewing. The entire unedited video will also be uploaded on YouTube in a few days. So here's the first video segment. The conversations get 'richer' as the days go by and new video segments hit YouTube. I have already sent across a questionnaire to Herald related to this business with the casino industry and the contentious issues which surface in the video. As and when and if they respond, I will publish their response on the social media too. ENDS... for now
