Paid News in Indian Media: Justice Santosh Hegde Warns

Paid news in Indian media is not a conspiracy theory. It's a documented crisis that corrodes the foundation of democratic discourse. Justice N Santosh Hegde, former Supreme Court judge and former Lokayukta of Karnataka, calls it plainly: "a disease that is prevailing in the Indian media."

When you open the news in the evening, Hegde observes, you already know which channel is propagating which political party. Diametrically opposed views appear on different channels not because truth varies — but because paid news in Indian media has corrupted the editorial independence that journalism once protected. The problem isn't complexity. It's capture.

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The Architecture of Corruption

Paid news in Indian media operates on a simple logic: money buys narrative control. Corporations pay for positive coverage. Political parties purchase favourable editorial decisions. Individuals with power — financial or political — determine what constitutes "news" and what gets silenced.

This isn't incidental. It's structural. Justice Hegde identifies the root cause: "We live in a society today which respects money or power. Nothing else. Acquiring power is to acquire money. Acquiring money is to acquire power. One begets the other."

When this logic pervades media ownership, paid news in Indian media becomes inevitable. Channels owned by corporate conglomerates naturally prioritise stories that serve their parent companies' interests. Political parties that fund media houses expect editorial alignment in return. Independent voices — journalists without institutional backing, stories without commercial value — get crowded out.

The casualty isn't just journalism. It's informed citizenship. People cannot make democratic decisions based on corrupted information.

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Why Independent Journalism Matters

Justice Hegde articulates what independent media must do: "There should be a media which projects the right thing and brings it to the knowledge of the people, so that they will ultimately decide which way the development of the country should go."

Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say media should decide the direction. He says media should inform people so they can decide. That's the fundamental purpose of journalism — to create the conditions for democratic choice, not to hijack it.

But building such media in an environment saturated with paid news in Indian media requires something money and power can't easily buy: credibility. And credibility takes time. It requires refusing the shortcuts — refusing corporate backing, refusing political patronage, refusing the speed-at-all-costs mentality that values breaking news over breaking through the noise.

Justice Hegde's warning is clear. Until we recognise paid news in Indian media as a disease and actively build alternatives, the machinery of capture will continue.

Independent media isn't optional. It's essential.