Chandigarh: As per the Instructions of the Election Commission of India, the Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMC) set up at State level headed by Additional CEO and an appellate committee headed by CEO and District levels headed by DCs would scrutinize political advertisements on TV channels/Cable Networks, Radio including the private FM Channels.
According to an official spokesperson of the Chief Electoral officer Punjab, the Commission has widened the area of certification by including Cinema Halls besides TV Channels/Cables Networks and Radio including FM Channels, Audio-visual displays of political advertisement in public place. Audio-visual displays of political advertisement/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 he said that use of bulk SMSs/voice messages in political campaigning should also require certification under the existing orders of the Commission to be done by the designated committees.
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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. The Commission also brought the political advertisements to be issued on Social Media sites under the purview of pre-certification 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.
Social Media Posts Does not Require Certification:
The commission has further clarified that any political content in the form of messages/ comments/photos/videos posted/uploaded on the blogs/self-accounts on websites/social media will not be treated as political advertisements and therefore would not require pre-certification.
However, advertisements issued in e-paper shall invariably require pre-certification by the concerned Committee.