The Election Commission of India on Tuesday asked all the political parties in the poll bound Punjab to get their advertisements certified by the poll panel before its publication.
Now, ads in the cinema halls, private FM channels, bulk SMSs or voice messages in political campaigning would also need certification under the Commission’s rules. Besides, the publicity on social media would also come under pre-certification purview.
For the same, the EC has set up Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMC) at the state level, headed by Additional Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) and an appellate committee headed by CEO, besides ones at the district levels too, headed by the Deputy Commissioners.
“They would scrutinize political advertisements on TV channels, cable networks, radio including the private FM channels,” said the official spokesperson of Punjab Chief Electoral Officer.
Spokesperson said that the Commission has widened the area of certification by including cinema halls besides TV Channels or cables networks and radio including FM channels, audio-visual displays of political advertisement in public place.
Audio-visual displays of political advertisement or campaign material in public places should require certification under the existing orders of the Commission to be done by the designated committee Pre-Certification of political advertisements.
Adding further, spokesperson said that use of bulk SMSs or voice messages in political campaigning should also require certification under the existing orders of the Commission to be done by the designated committees.
“The Commission has issued detailed guidelines on social media on October, 25, 2013, which mentions about furnishing details of social media accounts by the candidates during filing of nominations. Commission also brought the political advertisements to be issued on Social Media sites under the purview of pre-certification,” said the spokesperson.
The Commission further instructed that candidates and political parties shall include all expenditure on campaigning, including expenditure on advertisements on social media, both for maintaining a correct account of expenditure and for submitting the statement of expenditure.
The Commission has further clarified that any political content, in the form of messages, comments, photos, videos posted or uploaded on the blogs or self-accounts on websites or social media will not be treated as political advertisements and therefore, would not require pre-certification, said the spokesperson adding that advertisements issued in e-paper shall invariably require pre-certification by the concerned Committee.