As the state of Punjab heads towards polls this year, the Election Commission has decided to scrutinise political advertisements on TV, private FM channels besides keeping a tab on audio-visual displays at public places and even cinema halls.
Media certification and monitoring committees headed by additional Chief Election Officer and an appellate committee headed by CEO and district-level committees headed by deputy commissioners would inspect political advertisements, the CEO of Punjab said.
Audio-visual displays of political advertisement in public places, SMS/voice messages related to political campaigning would require certification under the existing orders of the EC which will be done by the designated committees.
The Commission has issued detailed guidelines on social media on 25 October 2013, which mentions about furnishing details of social media accounts by the candidates during filing of nominations.
The Commission also brought the political advertisements to be issued on social media sites under the purview of pre-certification.
It further instructed that candidates and political parties shall include all spendings on campaigning, including expenditure on advertisements on social media, both for maintaining a correct account of expenditure and for submitting the statement of the expenses, he said.
The Commission although made it clear that any political content in the form of message, comment, photo or video posted or uploaded on the blogs or self-accounts on websites or social media will not be treated as political advertisements and would not require pre-certification, he said.
However, advertisements issued in e-paper shall invariably require pre-certification by the committee concerned, he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)