"Money was given to popularise this new medium, no matter who runs those sites," Anupam Rajan, commissioner for public relations, Madhya Pradesh, told Express. Shockingly, the Express investigation found that some of these websites carried the same articles, and many owners were the wives of well-established journalists in Madhya Pradesh. You can also read the answers some journalists gave to questions on ownership of these websites here. In the last four years, the Madhya Pradesh government has spent ₹14 crore on advertisements in 234 "news" websites, many of which carry outdated information and are run by journalists or their relatives, an Indian Express investigation has found. He added that the government now had more checks in place that documented the popularity of a website before handing out advertisements.

Source: Huffington Post May 09, 2016 01:26 UTC