Political parties have favoured amendment of electoral laws to treat "paid news" as a poll malpractice, saying they are victims of such a syndrome.<br/><br/>CPIM General Secretary Prakash Karat said paid news should be declared an electoral malpractice. He was addressing a seminar on the paid news syndrome organised by the Editors Guild of India and the Indian Women's Press Corps in New Delhi yesterday. He felt a major hurdle in stopping this syndrome is that there is no record of the money exchanged in the deal and said those who paid money too should be held accountable.<br/><br/>Supporting him, senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said since the Election Commission is not adequately empowered to deal with the issue, a bill should be introduced in Parliament to amend the Act. The Model Code of Conduct does not cover the issue of malpractice.<br/> <br/>Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said that he will discuss the issue at the party level and take it up with the government. He said, he will provide details to the Election Commission if asked for.<br/><br/>Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi said that several political parties have complained to the commission about paid news, but no one has lodged a formal complaint yet.<br/><br/>Prasar Bharati Chairman Mrinal Pande was of the opinion that editors alone cannot be held responsible for what is appearing in newspapers as they cannot check each and every edition published from different places.