In Ghana, a reporter goes to a press conference, and inside her press packet, there’s a brown envelope containing the equivalent of a $20 bill. Not surprised, she slips it into her purse before heading back to the office to write up the event.
In Russia, public relations agency sends out a bogus press release about a fictitious company. Thirteen publications swallow the bait and agree to run the release just like a story, but only after demanding payment ranging from about $125 to nearly $2,000.
In Cambodia, a newspaper publishes a special edition devoted to the birthday of a prominent politician, complete with congratulatory advertisements from businessmen and lower-ranking officials. Then the paper sends out a bill for the ads – even though many of the “advertisers” didn’t know the ads were being used. They pay up anyway, rather than risk seeming not to want to honour the politician.
The Cash for Coverage: Bribery of Journalists Around the World report by the Washington DC-based Centre for International Media Assistance (CIMA) calls it "a single problem with many faces." It also lists various ways journalists are bribed around the world.
- Brown envelopes: This is the common term in much of sub-Saharan Africa and refers to the color of the envelopes found in every supermarket or stationery store. Conveniently, it is hard to see through them to the money inside.
- Red envelopes: That’s the variation in China, based on the more innocent tradition of giving holiday gifts in such envelopes.
- Soli: That’s what journalists call it in Ghana–a short form of the word “solidarity,” which is how they feel as a group in expecting these small payments.
- Jeansa: That’s the term in Ukraine, where politicians and businessmen often pay reporters to write stories favourable to them. The term comes from the blue jeans that reporters commonly wear.
- Ndalama yamatako: The Zambian term apparently translates literally as “money of the buttocks”– but journalists use it to mean “sitting allowance,” something to sweeten the experience of sitting in all those press conferences.
- Tips: In Madagascar reporters typically earn about $40 a month and routinely receive envelopes with money from the organisers of press conferences to cover transportation costs. The envelopes frequently include extra money, or “tips,” ranging from $10 to $50, to encourage favorable coverage. Sometimes their editors receive tips three times larger.
- Zakazukha: This Russian slang phrase has, in the context of journalism, come to generically mean “pay for publicity,” originating in the idea of “order for the story”–as in ordering a dish in a restaurant.
- Blocking papers, wishing papers: In Cambodia, a “blocking” paper is one that specializes in telling someone they are about to publish a damaging story about them unless they get a good enough bribe. A “wishing” paper might publish a fawning special edition honoring a senior politician’s birthday, and run congratulatory advertisements from mid-level officials or businessmen–without asking them first. Then the publisher sends a bill, and the unsuspecting “advertisers” pay rather than run the risk of not seeming supportive of the person.
- Mermelada: In Peru, where the word means marmalade or jam, it refers to straight handouts to journalists. There are also los lobos, which means “the wolves” but which also is a play on the English word “lobbyist”: These are PR lobbyists who have been journalists and still present themselves as journalists and don’t refer to the particular interest they are working for in their newspaper columns or radio programs.
