We weren't aware of it until recently, but the Parliamentary Standing committee on Paid News (i.e. corruption in the media) in India (download) released earlier this month quotes segments from MediaNama's submission, made to them at the end of 2010. Our views largely focus on significantly enhancing disclosures, differentiating between advertorials and editorial, setting up a body similar to TDSAT to address disputes, and recommendations regarding digital media and blogs. You can download our complete submission here. Based on anecdotal evidence, we do believe that the situation in online media has worsened, and we've heard of instances of stories being available for editing to sponsors, user databases being sold, publications being paid for guest blog posts and interviews, publications setting up meetings between Venture Capitalists and startups (which we see as a clear conflict of interest) apart from the usual things such as junkets and review devices not being taken back. This is a norm (as are undisclosed speaker slots in conferences, but that is a separate story), and we have faced many instances of potential advertisers trying to slip in an interview or an article ("editorial support" some call it), in the middle of a marketing discussion; just faced such a situation day before yesterday, in fact. We have always refused. In this context, our views on Paid News in Digital Media are a little outdated (by three years), and our views regarding regulation have changed since, but here they are for your reference, as well as some information on…
