Election Commission of India's Director General Akshay Raut has said that every appropriate effort will be made to check irregularities in the name of paid news at the time of elections. He urged media to cooperate in this regard. Raut held a detailed discussion with journalists at a workshop here on Thursday and also sought suggestions from them.
Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla, SVEEP plan Coordinator Virendra Ojha, Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Jaideep Govind, Joint Chief Electoral Officer SS Bansal and Additional Director Public Relations lajpat Ahuja were also present on the occasion.
Raut said that media's active cooperation helps the commission a lot in ensuring fair elections. Objective of the commission and media both is to ensure free and fair elections. The Election Commission received information through media quickly about violation of any process or rule. The commission takes a serious note of media reports.
Besides it, media also enhances political awareness. He said that the commission will provide every possible facility to journalists for reporting and other related works.
Raut informed that 3-tier committees have been constituted to ascertain wheter a media report is paid news or not. He informed that efforts will be made to curb this tendency in social media also. He expected from media to help the commission curb irregularities in the name of paid news. He also urged media to cooperate in effective implementation of SVEEP plan.
Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla said that useful information is disseminated quickly by media about election processes and it gets good feedback from media. He informed that regular media briefing will be held during elections. He expressed concern that some people consider elections as an opportunity to earn money through paid news. This tendency should be curbed. He said that media should exercise self-restraint.
Joint Chief Electoral Officer SS Bansal threw light on legal provisions implemented during elections. Informing about paid news, Additional Director Public Relations Suresh Awatramani said that committees have been constituted to ascertain paid news. He informed as to which kind of news comes under the category of paid news.
On the occasion, media representatives posed questions to Election Commission office-bearers and the latter satisfied their queries.