A major section of the Indian mainstream media (MSM) has become synonymous with fake news. It often publishes half-truths and misleading information to suit its agenda. In a similar instance, a journalist was recently spreading false news regarding fees to be levied for UPI services.
Media reports had emerged alleging RBI (Reserve Bank of India) was set to levy charges on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. Following these reports, the Union Finance Ministry issued a clarification saying there is no proposal to levy such a charge.
“UPI is a digital public good with immense convenience for the public & productivity gains for the economy. There is no consideration in Govt to levy any charges for UPI services. The concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means. The Govt had provided financial support for the #DigitalPayment ecosystem last year and has announced the same this year as well to encourage further adoption of #DigitalPayments and the promotion of payment platforms that are economical and user-friendly”, reads the ministry’s tweet.
The news originated after the RBI brought in a paper titled “Discussion Paper on Charges in Payment System”. Interestingly, the paper meant to assess the possibility of recovering the cost of building and running UPI infrastructure. Nowhere does the paper say charges are being imposed on UPI transactions. This was merely a topic of discussion that media houses misreported.
Similar fake news was spread by Business Standard journalist Shreya regarding the power sector. The Power Ministry issued a clarification in a series of tweets. There were some objections raised about the language used in one of the tweets. That said, the ministry has rightly called out the journalist for spreading misleading news.
The problem with most MSM journalists is they suffer from a God complex, a belief that they are always right and hence they can peddle any news without any proof or supporting data. It is important to call out their lies and put out the correct information in the public domain.
(Featured Image Source: OpIndia)
