EC mulls national award for voter education to media

Deliberations were held in detail on dos and don’ts and on paid/fake news and advertisements issued by political parties during the workshop.

Himachal Pradesh chief electoral officer Manish Garg while presiding over a media workshop here on Tuesday said the media acts as a catalyst in the delivery of free and fair elections and has always played a pivotal role during the elections in the state and it is expected to do the same during the elections to Lok Sabha.

The election commission has made provisions to confer the “National Media Award for Voter Education”.

He said the election commission has made provisions to confer the “National Media Award for Voter Education”.

Deliberations were held in detail on dos and don’ts and on paid/fake news and advertisements issued by political parties during the workshop.

Garg said media certification and monitoring committees have been formed at the state and district level to monitor advertisements in electronic media and print media by political parties. The content of advertisements issued or displayed on radio etc. can be approved. Apart from this, pre-certification of advertisements to be issued in print media on the day of elections and a day before will be mandatory.

The committees will also act on the complaints or cases related to paid news and if the case of paid news is verified then its expense will be added to the election expenditure of the candidate, and will also be reported to the Press Council of India through the commission.