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The Election Commission of India on Saturday urged the editors of newspapers to be more cautious in publishing advertisements masquerading as news items, and any advertisements predicting the victory of a particular party.
ECI cautioned the newspaper editors, stating that any form of speculative content related to election outcomes should be avoided. "To address the issues of unverified and baseless allegations in advertisements, editors have been reminded of the Press Council's norms, which provide that "an editor shall be responsible for all matters, including advertisements published in the newspaper. Advertisements in print media on pre-poll day and poll day will require pre-certification from the concerned media certification and monitoring committee," the Election Commission said. The poll body said that it has consistently kept a close watch on the political discourse during the campaigning by political parties. "The Commission has expressed concerns on several occasions about the plummeting levels of campaign discourse by political parties and has issued several advisories to arrest the decline, with the latest issued advisory on March 1, 2024," it said. "It may be recalled that in the ongoing General Elections 2024, the Commission recently censured two political leaders for their derogatory remarks against the dignity of women. However, the Commission took a step ahead and asked the party chiefs to sensitize their functionaries to be careful while communicating in the public domain and refrain from any such derogatory comments and violations of MCC guidelines," it added. ECI said that the conduct of the exit poll and dissemination of its results are prohibited from the beginning of the hours fixed for the poll on the first day of the poll (phase 1) and continue till half an hour after the poll closes in all the States and Union territories (phase 7). The specified period for ongoing general elections is 7 am on April 19, 2024, until 6:30 pm on June 1, 2024. (ANI)
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