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Election Commission to crack down on paid news
Election Commission to crack down on paid news, social media, Election Commission. The Election Commission set up a Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) at the district-level and State-level to monitor the elections and trace contents in the electronic and print media.
Hyderabad: Political advertisements in the garb of paid news and content on social media too will be monitored closely by the Election Commission in the forthcoming elections, said Election Commission Director-General Akshay Rout while addressing the media here on Wednesday.
The Election Commission set up a Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) at the district-level and State-level to monitor the elections and trace contents in the electronic and print media. “It is for the first time that MCMC will be implemented in Andhra Pradesh for both the Assembly as well as the Lok Sabha elections. All advertisements need to be pre-certified by the Election Commission,” Akshay Rout explained.
He sought the media’s support in the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections. In the last Lok Sabha elections the voter turnout was 72 per cent and urged the media to publicise and enthuse voters to cast their votes.
Answering a question on how television channels owned by politicians and political parties would be curbed, he said that there was no mathematical formula or criteria in place, but if a channel continuously showed only one party and candidate all through the day, action would be taken.
“The personnel are being trained for monitoring 24X7 and reports would be compiled on a day-to-day basis on the advertisement expenditure of a candidate. The Press Council of India too has drafted guidelines on the issue,” he informed.
He said that under Section 12B of the Representation of the People’s Act, the electronic media should not display election matter 48 hours before the polls.
According to Section 77, of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, every candidate is required to keep a separate and correct account of all expenditure. Every registered national and state political party and contesting candidate proposing to issue advertisement on television channels, cable network would have to apply to the Election Commission of India for pre-certification of all political advertisements before publication.
State Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal was also present at the meeting.
