The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the nodal agency for central government's advertisements, has suspended over 20 newspapers from its panel for a two-month period for publishing "paid" news, according to an advisory issued by it.
Around 30 more newspapers, which were not on the panel, would also not be allowed to get empanelled during the period, the advisory said.
This means these publications will not receive any central government advertisement for this period.
The development comes in the wake of the Press Council of India (PCI) censuring 52 newspapers for various reasons, mostly for publishing "paid" news.
"The publications, which are already on the panel, have been suspended for two months -- from September 13, 2017 to November 12, 2017," DAVP Director R C Joshi said in the advisory.
He added that it had also been decided by the Director General, DAVP that the publications, which were not on the panel and had been censured by the PCI, would not be empanelled or re-empanelled for the period.
Of the 52 newspapers, 37 were censured by the PCI for publishing "paid" news, three were censured for breach of journalistic norms, including one for publishing "obscene" photographs.
Two publications were censured for "casting severe insinuation against the complainant and no justification for publication of impugned news item", while one newspaper each was pulled up for "irresponsible and an act of mala fide reporting", "inaccurate and disrespectful news reports" and "publishing false and concocted impugned news item" respectively.
One newspaper each was censured for publishing a "false news item with an intention to blackmail", "demanding money for publishing advertisement without authorisation" and "aggrieved by a news item and newspaper not admitting the mistake" respectively.
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