THE NATIONAL HERALD AD STORM — AND A MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR MEDIA DEMOCRATISATION

 A controversy is currently raging over a national television channel’s exposure that the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government released a disproportionately high number of big budget advertisements to the National Herald, a newspaper owned by the Congress party and, more specifically, the Sonia Gandhi family. Congress spokesperson Pavan Khera has defended the government’s action, while senior BJP leaders, including Prahlad Joshi, have sharply attacked it, alleging favouritism and misuse of public funds.

At one level, there is nothing extraordinary about this episode. Governments—across party lines—have historically favoured certain media houses while releasing advertisements. Karnataka itself has seen BJP chief ministers sanctioning far larger advertisement budgets to outlets perceived as friendly to their regime. By comparison, the amount reportedly spent on National Herald advertisements is not astronomical; if anything, it is relatively nominal. The reason this issue has generated such heat is not the quantum involved, but the ownership of the newspaper and the symbolic politics attached to the Gandhi name.

Predictably, this controversy too will die down after the initial noise. But it presents the Siddaramaiah government with an opportunity it should not squander—an opportunity to democratise and decentralise government advertising policy in a meaningful and lasting manner.

For years now, a proposal has been pending before the Karnataka government to accord better treatment to professionally run regional daily newspapers that have circulation across four or five districts. Karnataka has a sizeable number of such regional dailies, many of them with decades of public service, deep local reach, and significant investments running into crores of rupees in manpower and state-of-the-art printing machinery. These newspapers pay taxes, comply with labour regulations, and play a crucial role in disseminating government welfare programmes to the grassroots.

Yet, despite their reach and credibility, these regional dailies continue to be treated as inferior to state-level newspapers when it comes to the release of government display advertisements. What is the justification for this discrimination? Why should regional newspapers, which often connect more directly with local communities, be placed a grade below state-level dailies in the government’s advertisement hierarchy?

Advertising should not be viewed as charity or patronage, to be dispensed based on political convenience or personal preferences. It is a professional transaction aimed at effective communication. Unfortunately, the discretion exercised vy the Chief Minister in conferring “state-level newspaper” status appears to have favoured certain publications, while others with equally credible performance remain ignored, their proposals lying in cold storage.

Siddaramaiah, who prides himself on pluralism, decentralisation, and justice, and who has crossed the milestone of being Karnataka’s longest-serving chief minister, should look inward at this moment of media crisis. Extending parity with state level newspapers to deserving regional dailies—especially those with 25 years or more of service and editions with a minimum eight standard pages (at least half of them in colour)—would be well within his authority. Such a step would not only strengthen struggling regional media but would also be widely welcomed as an act consistent with the values he professes. 

This is not asking for too much. It is simply asking for fairness.

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