Media

&
Corruption
Let us divide this discussion
into 3 parts
 Corruption
 Media
 Our role
Corruption
Corruption can be defined in various ways in literature.

“corruption" means requesting, offering, giving or

accepting, directly or indirectly, a bribe or any other undue
advantage or prospect thereof, which distorts the proper
performance of any duty or behaviour required of the
recipient of the bribe, the undue advantage or the
prospect thereof.
Corruption
Political corruption in India is a major concern. It is by far one
of the most corrupt governments in South Asia . A 2005 study
done by Transparency International (TI) in India found that
more than 75% of the people had firsthand experience of
paying bribe or peddling influence to get any type of job done
in a public office. Taxes and bribes are a daily life fact,
common between state borders; Transparency International
estimates that truckers pay annually US$5 billion in bribes.
For 2010, India was ranked 87 th of 178th countries in
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index,
which was a huge setback from the preceding year.
Criminalization of Indian politics is a major setback as well as a serious
problem. In July 2008 The Washington Post reported that nearly a fourth
of the 540 Indian Parliament members faced criminal charges,
"including human trafficking, immigration rackets, embezzlement, rape
and even murder". An international watchdog conducted a study on the
illicit flight of money from India, perhaps the first ever attempt at
shedding light on a subject steeped in secrecy, concludes that India has
been drained of $462 billion (over Rs 20 lakh crore) between 1948 and
2008. The amount is nearly 40% of India's gross domestic product.
History of Corruption In various sections
• The economy of Bharat was under socialist-inspired policies for an entire
generation from the 1950s until the late 1980s. The economy was subject to
extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to pervasive
corruption and slow growth. License Raj was often at the core of corruption.
• The Vohra Report was submitted by the former Indian Union Home Secretary,
N.N. Vohra, in October 1993. It studied the problem of the criminalisation of
politics and of the nexus among criminals, politicians and bureaucrats in India.
• According to Jitendra Singh, "in the bad old days, particularly pre-1991, when
the License Raj held sway, and by design, all kinds of free market mechanisms
were hobbled or stymied, and corruption emerged almost as an illegitimate
price mechanism, a shadowy quasi-market, such that scarce resources could
still be allocated within the economy, and decisions could get made. [...] These
were largely distortions created by the politico-economic regime. While a sea
change has occurred in the years following 1991, some of the distorted cultural
norms that took hold during the earlier period are slowly being repaired by the
sheer forces of competition. The process will be long and slow, however. It
will not change overnight." One of the major problems and obstacles to
development that many developing countries face is corruption by greedy,
power-hungry politicians, which is endemic in certain parts of the world.
Types of Corruption

 Bribery
A bribe is a payment given personally to a government official in
exchange of his use of official powers. Bribery requires two participants:
one to give the bribe, and one to take it. Either may initiate the corrupt
offering. Bribes may be demanded in order for an official to do
something he is already paid to do. They may also be demanded in order
to bypass laws and regulations. In addition to using bribery for private
financial gain, they are also used to intentionally and maliciously cause
harm to another (i.e. no financial incentive).
BRIBERY CAN BE OF 2 TYPES

Active Bribery
• Active bribery can be defined for instance as the promising, offering or
giving by any person, directly or indirectly, of any undue advantage [to
any public official], for himself or herself or for anyone else, for him or
her to act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions.
Passive Bribery
• Passive bribery can be defined as the request or receipt [by any public
official], directly or indirectly, of any undue advantage, for himself or
herself or for anyone else, or the acceptance of an offer or a promise of
such an advantage, to act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or
her functions.
Governmental corruption of judiciary
• Governmental corruption of judiciary includes governmental spending on the courts,
which is completely financially controlled by the executive in many transitional and
developing countries. This undermines the principle of checks and balances and creates
a critical financial dependence on the judiciary. It covers latent governmental spending on
the judiciary in the form of privileges – cars, country houses,expenses. Such a system is
completely outside the realm of transparency and creates a precedent for the corruption
of the judiciary by executive authorities.
Trading in influence
• Trading in influence, or influence peddling in certain countries, refers to the situation
where a person is selling his/her influence over the decision process involving a third
party (person or institution). The difference with bribery is that this is a tri-lateral relation.
From a legal point of view, the role of the third party (who is the target of the influence)
does not really matter although he/she can be an accessory in some instances. It can be
difficult to make a distinction between this form of corruption and certain forms of extreme
and poorly regulated lobbying where for instance law- or decision-makers can freely "sell"
their vote, decision power or influence to those lobbyists who offer the highest retribution,
including where for instance the latter act on behalf of powerful clients such as industrial
groups who want to avoid the passing of certain environmental, social, or other
regulations perceived as too stringent, etc. Where lobbying is (sufficiently) regulated, it
becomes possible to provide for a distinctive criteria and to consider that trading in
influence involves the use of "improper influence“.
Patronage
• Patronage refers to favoring supporters, for example with government employment. This
may be legitimate, as when a newly elected government changes the top officials in the
administration in order to effectively implement its policy. It can be seen as corruption if
this means that incompetent persons, as a payment for supporting the regime, are
selected before more able ones.
Nepotism and cronyism

• Favoring relatives (nepotism) or personal friends (cronyism) of an official is a form of

illegitimate private gain. This may be combined with bribery, for example demanding that
a business should employ a relative of an official controlling regulations affecting the
business. The most extreme example is when the entire state is inherited, as in
North Korea or Syria. A milder form of cronyism is an "old boy network", in which
appointees to official positions are selected only from a closed and exclusive social
network – such as the alumni of particular universities – instead of appointing the most
competent candidate.
Kickbacks

• A kickback is an official's share of misappropriated funds allocated from his or her

organization to an organization involved in corrupt bidding. For example, suppose that a
politician is in charge of choosing how to spend some public funds. He can give a
contract to a company that is not the best bidder, or allocate more than they deserve. In
this case, the company benefits, and in exchange for betraying the public, the official
receives a kickback payment, which is a portion of the sum the company received. This
sum itself may be all or a portion of the difference between the actual (inflated) payment
to the company and the (lower) market-based price that would have been paid had the
bidding been competitive. Kickbacks are not limited to government officials; any situation
in which people are entrusted to spend funds that do not belong to them are susceptible
to this kind of corruption.
Conditions favorable for corruption
 Information deficits
•Lack of government transparency.
•Lacking freedom of information legislation. The Indian Right to Information Act 2005
has "already engendered mass movements in the country that is bringing the lethargic,
often corrupt bureaucracy to its knees and changing power equations completely."
•Lack of investigative reporting in the local media.
•Contempt for or negligence of exercising freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
•Weak accounting practices, including lack of timely financial management.
•Lack of measurement of corruption. For example, using regular surveys of households
and businesses in order to quantify the degree of perception of corruption in different
parts of a nation or in different government institutions may increase awareness of
corruption and create pressure to combat it. This will also enable an evaluation of the
officials who are fighting corruption and the methods used.
• Tax havens which tax their own citizens and companies but not those from other
nations and refuse to disclose information necessary for foreign taxation. This
enables large scale political corruption in the foreign nations.
Lacking control of the government

• Democracy absent or dysfunctional. See illiberal democracy.

• Lacking civic society and non-governmental organizations which monitor the
government.
• An individual voter may have a rational ignorance regarding politics, especially in
nationwide elections, since each vote has little weight.
• Weak civil service, and slow pace of reform.
• Weak rule of law.
• Weak legal profession.
• Weak judicial independence.
• Lacking protection of whistleblowers.
• Lack of benchmarking, that is continual detailed evaluation of procedures and comparison
to others who do similar things, in the same government or others, in particular
comparison to those who do the best work. The Peruvian organization Ciudadanos al Dia
has started to measure and compare transparency, costs, and efficiency in different
government departments in Peru. It annually awards the best practices which has
received widespread media attention. This has created competition among government
agencies in order to improve.
Opportunities and incentives

• Individual officials routinely handle cash, instead of handling payments by giro or

on a separate cash desk—illegitimate withdrawals from supervised bank
accounts are much more difficult to conceal.
• Public funds are centralized rather than distributed. For example, if $1,000 is
embezzled from a local agency that has $2,000 funds, it is easier to notice than
from a national agency with $2,000,000 funds. See the principle of subsidiarity.
• Large, unsupervised public investments.
• Sale of state-owned property and privatization.
• Poorly-paid government officials.
• Government licenses needed to conduct business, e.g., import licenses, encourage
bribing and kickbacks.
 • Long-time work in the same position may create relationships inside and outside
the government which encourage and help conceal corruption and favoritism.
Rotating government officials to different positions and geographic areas may
help prevent this; for instance certain high rank officials in French government
services (e.g. treasurer-paymasters general) must rotate every few years.
• Costly political campaigns, with expenses exceeding normal sources of political
funding, especially when funded with taxpayer money.
• Less interaction with officials reduces the opportunities for corruption. For
example, using the Internet for sending in required information, like applications
and tax forms, and then processing this with automated computer systems. This
may also speed up the processing and reduce unintentional human errors.
• A windfall from exporting abundant natural resources may encourage corruption.
• War and other forms of conflict correlate with a breakdown of public security
Social conditions

• Self-interested closed cliques and "old boy networks".

• Family-, and clan-centered social structure, with a tradition of nepotism
/favouritism being acceptable.
• A gift economy, such as the Chinese guanxi or the Soviet blat system, emerges
in a Communist centrally planned economy.
• In societies where personal integrity is rated as less important than other
characteristics (by contrast, in societies such as 18th and 19th century England,
20th century Japan, and post-war western Germany, where society showed
almost obsessive regard for "honor" and personal integrity, corruption was less
frequently seen)
• Lacking literacy and education among the population.
• Frequent discrimination and bullying among the population.
• Tribal solidarity, giving benefits to certain ethnic groups
MEDIA
Flow of info/intro of technology
• The flow of information is important for the development of communities and the media
facilitates this. Without a wide array of information, people's opinions and views would be
limited and their impressions and conclusions of the world around them stunted.
• Historically, the most common form of the distribution of information was word of mouth,
with the news often beginning with the words," Did you know…";
• Indeed, word of mouth is still one of the most powerful tools in the sharing of information
today, particularly in tourism, but technology has allowed for this exchange to take place
in an instant, forging the way for bigger and better media houses with the instant access
to information with the instant gratification factor.
QUESTIONS ON OUR MIND!
 Does society have a right to know everything?
 Do people have a right to privacy?
 Do people have a right to a fair trial?
 Should the rights of a minor be protected?
 Should the privacy of a victim be protected?
 Are media free to publish any news stories?
 Do journalists have a right to refuse cover certain stories?
 How important are ratings to a TV station?
 What is balanced coverage?
 Television and Politics Questions

 Why is TV interested in political campaigns?

 Who takes advantage of media coverage?
 Which medium does best communicating presidential politics? Other politicians?
Why?
 How much does TV inform people’s voting decisions?
 Does TV provide balanced or unbiased coverage? Equal time?
 How well does TV cover presidential debates? Others?
 Does TV emphasize image over substance?
 Do negative TV ads. work? Why? Why not?
 What influences the way people vote?
 What does Lazarsfeld’s Two-Step-Flow Theory seems to suggest?
 Television and Presidential Politics
Television coverage tends to ……

 Emphasize opinion polls over campaign issues

 Cover Democrats more than Republicans (according to meta-analysis)
 Focus on conflict between candidates
(rather than stand on issues)
 Emphasize image over issues or stands on issues
 Feature negative messages in presidential campaigns
 Influence “talkative voters” more than any other medium
 Positively influence the way people vote in elections
 Problems with News channels…
• Shift towards entertainment rather
than information
• More superficial or simplified
• Focus on dramatic events
• Focus on crime, particularly murder
• Concerned with ratings and profit
• Less respectful of human rights,
particularly privacy
• Less concern with jeopardizing legal
process
• Watchdog role is inclined to be
negative
• Journalists Influenced by “pack
journalism”
• News less controversial or
confrontational
• Fear of lawsuits prevents tackling
controversial subjects
• Tendency to have patriotic bias
• Convergence with other media
undermining uniqueness
 Rights

 Right to free press (all media?)

 Right of public to know (what government is doing)
 Right of minor children to be protected
 Right of rape victim not to be identified
 Right to privacy
 Right to confidentiality (doctor, lawyer, priest)
 Right to fair trial (innocent before judged guilty)
 Right to fair or balanced treatment in media (revealing all
sides of the issue, situation, case)
 FREEDOM OF THE PRESS OR LIMITED FREEDOM?

• First Amendment Rights

• Freedom of political & religious speech
• Not free to defame or slander
• Not free to libel anyone
• Not free to show or promote obscenity
• Not free to carry out unlawful acts (riots, sabotage)
• Not free to make deceptive claims in advertisements
• Not free to invade privacy of individuals
• Not free to use “bad words” in broadcasting
• Not free to reveal military secrets
 Is media committed in fighting this menace or is it
just a TRP gaining exercise to focus on one
corruption and forget it the moment another scam
breaks out?
BUT TODAY!
MEDIA HAS
EVOLVED!!
 Media plays a crucial role in shaping a healthy democracy. It is the backbone of a
democracy. Media makes us aware of various social, political and economical activities
happening around the world. It is like a mirror, which shows us or strives to show us the
bare truth and harsh realities of life.
 The media has undoubtedly evolved and become more active over the years. It is the
media only who reminds politicians about their unfulfilled promises at the time of
elections. T.V news channels excessive coverage during elections helps people,
especially illiterates, in electing the right person to the power. This reminder compels
politicians to be upto their promises in order to remain in power. 
 Television and radio have made a significant achievement in educating rural illiterate
masses in making them aware of all the events in their language. Coverage of
exploitative malpractices of village heads and moneylenders has helped in taking
stringent actions against them by attracting government’s attention.
 The media also exposes loopholes in the democratic system, which ultimately helps
government in filling the vacuums of loopholes and making a system more accountable,
responsive and citizen-friendly. A democracy without media is like a vehicle without
wheels. 
 In the age of information technology we are bombarded with information. We get the
pulse of the world events with just a click of a mouse. The flow of information has
increased manifolds. The perfect blend of technology and human resources (journalist)
has not left a single stone unturned in unearthing rampant corruption in politics and
society. We all are well aware of what tehelka did. Thanks to technology that has brought
a kind of revolution in journalism.
 There are many different ways in which people communicate such as, through the
phone, through personal encounters, and by attending work place, school, seminars
etc. Though media is not the only communication medium used to dispense the flow
of information, its importance in developed countries is worth mentioning as it has
been the main source to inform people on political issues or current affairs as well as
being as the main source of entertainment. The flow of information from one
geographical location to another has increased in speed considerably with the advent
in digitally enabled communication devices. Different network channels over cable or
satellite TV, newspapers and radio channels are emerging at a very rapid pace
providing the people with a medium to connect themselves with the outside world.
Print media has always been a dominant medium throughout the decades in the
western civilization, but it is the emergence of the television which has become the
backbone of the global commercial.
 The role media is playing as being the main source of information is a controversial
issue.   It is being debated what are the media functions in a society and what are its
impact on an individual. The term media is a general term which is not restricted to a
particular entity but in order to understand the term "commercial media", the US
provides the best platform for critically analyzing the role of media in a society.
Interpreters and surveillance guys
 Media workers are in essence interpreters of information. All of us have been library to do
some research for a paper or a report, sifting through piles and piles of information to
support the thesis in 1,000 words or more, or to explain an event, situation or person.
 Journalists in the media do the same. They just don’t provide pages of facts and statistics
which an ordinary person might not understand. Instead, they weed out the important
points and issues, putting them in context that the average reader or listener can make
sense in order to form their own opinions.
 How terrible it would be if we have to sift through piles of documentation and statistics, or
sit through conferences, just to find out price of onion in Delhi has risen?
Journalists provide 6 basic areas of information

who What

why where

Most of the time

how that’s all we need
to know
Watchdog
o While the media has historically been viewed as being overly aggressive and insatiable in their
plight for the latest and hottest news, their watchdog-type function is essential in a democratic
society where people MUST know what their governments are doing.
o The media has the capacity to hold governments accountable, forcing them to explain their
actions and decisions, all of which affect the people they represent.
o In a democratic society, people should know all their options if they are to govern themselves, and
the media is a vehicle for the dissemination of such information.
o The assumption in some societies is that the press speaks for the people, thus the freedom of
speech and freedom of the press acts in US and in many other countries. The reason for freedom
of the Press is to ensure that democracy is able to function, so it is important to understand that
such legislation does not only protect the functions of the press.
o With press freedom we know what the differing views in society are, opening the florr to be
debate, and discussion, all of which are healthy functions of a democratic society. The soviet
union and east germany both crumpled for this same reason- the people would not be dictated to
any longer.
Relationship between media and people
Without ‘the media’ to serve ‘the people’, the world, as we know it today, would be
very different indeed and quite unrecognizable.
The exposing of corruption to ‘the media and the people’ and that also underscores an
indisputable fact. In the fight against corruption everywhere, there can be no victory
without courageous individuals standing up, speaking out, taking risks, and alerting
the wider society that something wrong is taking place. Such courageous individuals
are to be found amongst ‘the media’ as well as amongst ‘the people’. Indeed, the
relationship between the two groups is symbiotic because they are, in practice, tied
one to the other to the advantage of both.
In general, the relationship between the two groups is quite a simple one: the people
feed information to the media and the media gives voice to the people. A courageous
individual is to be admired when he/she stands up, against the odds, and takes a public
position against corruption. However, his/her effectiveness is limited by personal
influence over a fairly small group of people over time.
• A courageous broadcaster, on the other hand, who takes a stand against
corruption can use the power of the pen to reach daily thousands through the
print media and millions through the electronic media, especially the
internet. The communication is instant and, once his/her words are released
to ‘the people’, the message cannot be taken back.
• Members of civil society should recognize the ally that they have in
the media in the fight against corruption and that should give them
the confidence to expose corruption wherever it is found. Courageous
individuals come from all walks of life.
Why is that only when media exposes corruption
some action on ground is taken?
Are all our democratic institutions and constitutional
bodies crumbling?
Or
Is media itself corruption free?
Investigative Journalism

 In countries where key state institutions are weak wrongdoers are able to operate with
impunity because police investigations result in few arrests and judicial prosecutions
result in fewer convictions. History has shown, that even in better organised societies, it
is the work of the investigative journalists who exposed the corruption that brought down
many powerful but corrupt leaders and businessmen. In America, we had the cases of
President Nixon for Watergate and corporations Enron, Arthur Andersen and WorldCom
etc. for accounting and stock market fraud. In Latin Ameriaca, we had the downfall of
Presidents Bucaram of Ecuador, Andres Perez of Venezuela, Collar de Mello of Brazil
and Fujimori of Peru. These are but a few examples. In Europe, Asia and Africa more
examples abound.
 The practice of investigative journalism, however, comes at a high price. A broadcaster
attempting to uncover corruption lays his/her life on the line. Powerful political and
business forces, when threatened, often respond with force and violence. Around the
world, broadcasters are being threatened, harassed, kidnapped, jailed and terrorised for
exposing corruption. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that between January
1 1992 and January 15 2008, 679 journalists were killed worldwide, many of whom were
investigating powerful persons for alleged corruption.
 Typically, investigative journalists do not only face obstacles from vested interests in the
public domain. Increasingly, their work is made more difficult even from inside their own
media houses. In many parts of the world, we are seeing an alarming tendency of self-
censorship which is linked to the fundamental conflict between the economic interests of
media houses and their mandate to inform truthfully. This conflict is intensified through
the high levels of concentration of media ownership and, as a consequence, many media
houses keep reducing their budgets for investigative journalism, leaving many
broadcasters with inadequate resources to do their job properly.
 The future
 Across the world, corruption is a scourge that is not going to go away anytime soon.
Indeed, in many quarters it is felt that corruption is getting worse. The United Nations
estimates that annually US$3 trillion of development funds are diverted from the intended
use by corrupt persons. This results mainly in underprivileged people being denied their
basic entitlement of food, water, shelter, education, medical services etc. Countries are
denied development of their infrastructure and this perpetuates the poverty cycle.
 So far, we have looked at what has happened in the past but what of the future? Finding
new and innovative ways to expose corruption has to be the long-term goal. However,
recognition of the need for improved performance of the basics of the profession by the
media must be the first step to ensuring that new innovations will be effectively
implemented.
 Broadcasters can begin by doing more to raise even further their profile and effectiveness
in the eyes of the people and so strengthen the already strong relationship. Broadcasters
can start by bringing to their job more professionalism by proper checking of sources to
ensure factual, legal and ethical content in their reports. They can show more balance in
their reporting by eschewing all personal and political bias.
 Broadcasters should expand their areas of interest and do more research in order to do a
better job and to be better able to educate the people. We have no doubt that every
broadcaster is committed to exposing the people behind corruption whenever and
wherever it raises its head. However, in order to fight corruption in a meaningful way, a
broadcaster needs to be informed and to understand the phenomenon.
 Owners and managers of media houses can give more support to their broadcasters by
providing adequate resources and a work environment free from interference. They must
recognize that the media’s role as the voice of the people sometimes become blurred and
encourage broadcasters to achieve greater clarity. They must reject the indolence of
some broadcasters and editors who accept and publish ‘set pieces’ of news and press
releases without searching to find the real story behind the news. Broadcasters must be
made to understand that quality and not quantity is what is required. They must be
encouraged to ask the hard questions without fear or favor.
 Undoubtedly, new ways have to be found to fight the ever changing face of corruption.
The corrupt are more powerful today than ever before. Some of them control budgets that
are larger than the annual budgets of most developing countries. For many countries,
resistance against these forces is a losing battle. Today, corruption is being aided by the
speed and flexibility offered by the Internet. National corruption is giving way to trans-
national, cross-border international corruption that is difficult to trace, let alone fight.
 The challenges notwithstanding, the need to join the battle and to win the fight against
corruption is more urgent than it ever was. The search for innovative ways to expose
corruption has to be pursued with vigor even though success will take time. In the interim,
we should look also at existing proven strategies that could be adopted or adapted to
local needs instead of trying to re-invent the wheel. TI has developed many anti-
corruption tools that have been in use for many years and most are well known.
 Our role
• The partnership between the media and the people in exposing corruption is well established
around the world. From time to time, when the relationship becomes strained, there might be
need for re-building confidence between the parties and that should be done in a spirit of give
and take and mutual trust. Both parties have equally important roles to play in keeping the
partnership alive and well. Each party needs the support of the other.
• It is a truism that the media plays an important role in preserving a democracy and, generally,
members of the media readily recognize that. However, in many countries, particularly
developing countries, the people do not recognize their important role in preserving a
democracy. Too
often they succumb to the notion that they play their
part once every five years when they cast a ballot to elect leaders .
The people must be made to recognize the power that civil society wields if united in a cause
and the media can play an important role in spreading that message. They must not forget,
and must frequently remind government leaders, that the people have placed them in power
only temporarily as their servants and not as their masters.
• The media and the people are an unstoppable force in any country, whatever
the stage of its democracy. Their effectiveness in exposing corruption is only
one of the many things that they can achieve together. They must believe in
their respective strengths, and in their combined partnership strength, and
persevere in their efforts to achieve a better world, generally, and especially
one that is free of corruption.
So now we can answer…

Is media the only hope to fight

corruption?
References
 Websites :
I. Wikipedia : political corruption, police corruption, corruption in India
II. http://upscportal.com/civilservices/essay/An-Essay-Role-of-media-in-a-democracy
III. http://upscportal.com/civilservices/essay/An-Essay-Role-of-media-in-a-democracy
IV. http://
www.cba.org.uk/conferences_and_events/2008_CBA_conference/documents/Innovative
WaysofExposingCorruptionTheMediaandthePeoplebyVictorHartChairmanoftheTrinidad.ph
p
V. http://blog.abhinav.com/the-role-of-media-in-today%E2%80%99s-society/>
 EBook's :
I. Combating corruption in India, Sunil Sondhi, DU
II. Media role in society
III. Notes from Radford University, author- rworringham
Thank you!
-Swapnil Pa
l