Port Blair, Mar 17: A press briefing was held in the conference hall of Secretariat this evening, with the objective to sensitize media persons about Paid News and role of MCMC. The Chief Electoral Officer, A & N Islands, Mr. K R Meena briefed the media persons on the occasion.
Briefing media about paid news, the CEO said that paid news is news other than advertisement, published by a candidate or political party on payment. Paid news is considered on the basis of the contents in the matter contained. Paid News seeks to circumvent election expenditure laws/ ceiling. It also vitiates the principle of level playing field among candidates, and it may influence voters as well, he said. Expenditure on such published news has to be included in the account of the contesting Candidate or the Party, he said. MCMC teams have been formed to monitor and to stop such news and to bring to the knowledge of expenditure committee, so that the expenditure of paid news can be booked in the expenditure account of candidates/political party, for whom it is published, he said.
A power point presentation on the topic “Paid News & MCMC” was presented by the Nodal Officer (Media), Mr. Nishant Bodh. He said MCMC teams are set up to check Paid News and also for Certification of political nature of advertisement to be telecast in Electronic Media. The timeline for MCMC certification for registered national and state party or candidate is not later than 3 days prior to proposed telecast while for registered unrecognized political party not later than 7 days prior to proposed telecast, he added.
An interaction was also held wherein the media persons sought clarification of their doubts regarding MCMC from the CEO, which were promptly clarified.
The meeting was also attended by the Returning Officer, A&N Islands Parliamentary Constituency, Mr. Udit Prakash Rai, the Secretary IP&T, Mr. Deepak Virmani, the SP District South Andaman, Mr. Deepak Yadav, and the Director IP&T, Smt. Angel Bhati Chauhan and the Member Secretary, MCMC South Andaman District Mr. Piyush Rohankar.