In August, a seemingly innocuous report was released on the floor of the Orissa Legislative Assembly. The report– more of a shabbily printed three pagelist actually – contained the names of journalists who had applied for allocation of government quarters over the last few years.

Only accredited journalists – journalists recognised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) – are eligible to apply for government accommodation.  To be recognised by the PIB, you have to have been a journalist for at least five years.

What’s so scandalous about usually penurious jholawalahs applying for drab government housing, you ask? Not much, except for the fact that these allocation applications make the Press Council Of India’s advisory on “Norms of Journalistic Conduct” seem utterly redundant.

It also makes a slight mockery of “journalism ethics”.

For starters, let’s take a look at what the PCI’s “Norms of Journalism Conduct” say on the issue of allotment of government accommodation to journalists. The regulations laid down seem to be very specific to Delhi and the National Capital Region. Since it isn’t stated otherwise, it would be fair to assume that the same set of rules extend to journalists who don’t reside in the capital. The section on government accommodation for journalists is almost ten pages long and replete with long winding sarkaari-type sentences.

It finally all boils down to a number – Rs15,000 to be precise. That, according to the PCI, is the most you can earn in a month and yet be eligible to apply for government accommodation. It is important to note here that this figure was fixed way back in 1996, when the ocst of living and salaries was just a tad different to today. It might not be a bad idea on the PCI’s part to re-work the economics and come up with an updated ceiling that is more suited to today’s times.

The ceiling of maximum emoluments is an important entity here, for it is directly related to the eligibility criteria set by the PCI. As mentioned, only a journalist with five years or more of experience is eligible to apply for government accommodation. Even by Indian journalism’s ridiculously frugal standards (with the obvious exceptions of course), a journalist with more than five years of experience would earn much more than the current cap of Rs 15,000. Which means that somewhere there lies a glaring discrepancy between the printed word and the practical world. It’s also common knowledge that rules with practical inadaptability get flouted all the time. Simply because there’s scope to – and we as a people love to.

When Newslaundry tried getting the Press Council’s take on it, all we ended up with was being directed from one person to another with a slew of similar sounding phone numbers. The usually verbose PCI chairman, Markandey Katju, did not answer his phone or reply to our many emails.

The Indian Express, way back in January 2012, had published a report on the Bhubaneshwar Development Authority (BDA) giving away plots and core houses meant for the “distressed”. These houses were allotted to 832 beneficiaries under the discretionary quota available with the urban development minister, between 1985 and 2009. The list of beneficiaries includes a large number of journalists – mostly editors and senior correspondents with salaries undoubtedly much higher than Rs15,000. To ensure we were not failing to see something that the BDA must have seen while allotting prime plots and houses at throwaway prices to these not-so-poor presswallahs, we tried contacting Vishal Dev, Vice Chairman of the BDA. According to an article in Open, he is also a beneficiary of the BDA’s largesse – although he’s not a journalist. Dev didn’t answer any of the phone calls placed to him by us.

Orissa, it seems, is not the only state that believes in pampering its journalists. Rajasthan’s Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot gave away not only land but also free laptops to journalists just last week in Rajasthan. He was quoted as saying – “to help journalists meet the challenges of the IT revolution”. Gehlot reportedly was “only distributing the public’s money among the masses”. The question is why only journalists are the recipients of all the government’s goodwill — journalists working with profit-making organisations that too?

Now to the supposedly dicey and subjective debate of morality and journalism ethics. Let’s look at it this way – If X has done Y a favour (and selling land at less than half the market price is a big favour), Y would obviously be very grateful to X and would think twice before doing/saying anything against him.  Not the most conducive situation for honest or fair journalism. It’s as simple as that. That this escapes the Press Council of India and journalists is well, a little difficult to believe.