By Pradyuman Maheshwari
Every year, the organisers of a leading advertising and marketing conference hosts journalists for the three-/four-day event that happens in North or South Goa. This includes to and fro air travel and a comfortable stay in a luxury hotel that’s part of the venue or very close to it. Until a few years back, the hosts wouldn’t take care of the travel, but the hotel stay was a done deal.
Then there are TV channel launches, special shoots or just interviews –for which journalists are invited to and often hosted in India and elsewhere in the world.
There are of course some – note, only some – journalists who insist that they will pay for their travel and stay. That’s it’s part of their company policy or their own value system.
Over the last 10-odd years that MxMIndia has existed, and the 35-odd years that one has been in the profession, I must confess, I have accepted freebies. Free meals, visits to events and for interviews which were unnecessary, fam trips etc etc. And some gifts, often unnecessary.
If I haven’t received favours for myself, I have got them – several hundreds of them – for the media entities I have represented.
I have given the A&M fest example not to embarrass the organisers, but only to point out the problem. As an A&M trade site, the event offers content, and I bloody well cover it for my readers. Even if it’s paying for travel and stay. Ditto with other events. A freebie can’t be a birthright, and event organisers must have enough faith in their content that will attract journalists to spend their own monies and cover.
Last week, the Advertising Standards Council of India released its guidelines for influencer marketing. Great idea. Much-needed. Received with expected fanfare.
At the core of the guidelines is the need for full disclosure. Disclosures that a certain post has been paid for or after receiving a freebie or favour.
As I was reading the guidelines, I was feeling sheepish and uneasy. So, while the world was trying to underscore the need for these guidelines and police the system , what about us journalists?
Why don’t we have a compulsory full disclosure system too?
The problem is that while for news television there is a self-regulatory body, and there is one that’s come up for digital news, none of this exists for the holy cows of print.
One may say that print is not relevant any longer. Fact is: it’s not yet. It’s still perceived as the more credible medium, and the written word on newsprint is trusted loads more than what’s published on digital or television.
By journalists, I don’t just mean news scribes, but also those with lifestyle and general interest publications. Even those dealing current affairs of the filmi types.
The request is simple to others journalists: do whatever you want to do, and do as you’ve been doing. But let’s come clean on disclosures. Tell us if you’ve accepted a freebie, a junket, a favour whatever. Okay, admission for your child to that prestigious South Delhi school or an out-of-turn allotment of the SUV that’s not available may not be disclosure-able, but then these favours, as we know, can set you back much in the credibility index. If that matters to you.
Disclosures begin at home, and at MxMIndia, we resolve to come clean. Always.