Ahead of the May 10 voting in Karnataka, the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday wrote to editors of major newspapers in the State, making it clear that the Press Council of India’s norms for journalistic conduct hold them responsible for all matters, including advertisements, published in their newspapers. “If responsibility is disclaimed, this shall be explicitly stated beforehand,” the Commission said in a letter to editors of newspapers in Karnataka.
In a separate advisory to political parties, the EC said that no party or candidate shall publish any advertisement in the print media during silence period — on poll day and one day prior — without clearance and pre-certification from Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC).
The poll body also emphasised on a "clean and serious" campaign as electioneering reached feverish pitch for the polls. Campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections is set to end on Monday. In a letter to editors of all major newspapers in Karnataka, the EC said, "An editor shall be responsible for all matters, including advertisements published in the newspaper. If responsibility is disclaimed, this shall be explicitly stated beforehand."
"No political party or candidate or any other organisation or person shall publish any advertisement in the print media on poll day and one day prior to poll day unless the contents of political advertisement are got pre-certified by them from the MCMC at the State/district level, as the case may be,” the advisory stated.
“As there are still 24 hours for the Pre-Certification timeline to come into being, the EC once again reiterates that the spirit underlying its Instruction of 31.03.2023 as contained in para 1 of the Instruction dated 31.03.23 needs to be adhered to by the political parties i.e. "that instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in print media have been brought to the notice of the Commission in the past. Such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process. The affected candidates and parties will not have any opportunity of providing clarification/rebuttal in such cases", it said.