Come any elections, it is a festive time for the media which gets good amount of revenue in the form of advertisements.
And local media persons would be under pressure to collect as many advertisements as possible and write paid news on behalf of the political parties which give ads.
There are instances where same newspaper write both positive and negative stories about candidates representing different parties in different pages.
It is obvious that such news is planted and paid by the candidates.
Same thing is happening during the by-elections to Nandyal assembly seat. Newspapers have been writing a lot of paid news and naturally, they have come under the scanner of Election Commission.
The other day, Sakshi got the notice from the EC for carrying a campaign for the YSR Congress party and the authorities accounted the news in the election expenditure of party candidate Silpa Mohan Reddy.
On Wednesday, EC served notices on Andhra Jyothy daily for carrying a story in the Kurnool district edition calling Jagan as 'Prathi Nayakudu,' which means villain in Telugu.
The YSRC party immediately complained to the EC authorities. The Media certification and Monitoring Committee headed by district collector also felt that the daily has breached the Election Commission guidelines.
The EC declared that the report will be considered as paid news and sought explanation from the media house.
