[icernet] Corporate Disclosures And The Media

[Arul Selvan]

  Eight years ago, when the IPO market was at its manic worst, corporate 
India first began to demand curbs on media reporting. While companies 
indulged in the most bizarre strategies to woo journalists and engineer 
glowing coverage of shady public issues, they wanted a code of conduct 
for business journalists. The Press Council of India obliged and 
produced a set of guidelines, exclusively for financial journalists. 
They said that — business journalists should not accept gifts, trips, 
discounts, loans or similar gratification that would compromise their 
position. Journalists should not write about companies whose shares they 
held. Newspaper owners/editors should not use their connections to 
further their business interests; and journalists and their 
friends/relatives should not use inside information to make easy money. 
The guidelines were rather unfair and forgotten soon after they were 
issued. Although business writing undoubtedly needs to be purged of 
chequebook journalism, the problem is by no means restricted to the pink 
press or their cousins in the general dailies.

Source:
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=26261