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As the Election Commission of India (ECI) organised its second one-day conference for media and communication officers, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Friday asked the concerned officials to be wary of "false narratives" being propagated on social media while emphasising the need for them to prevent the spread of misinformation.
According to a press release, CEC Kumar said that "each and every action of the Commission is based on the Constitution of India, Electoral Laws and written instructions issued from time to time in a transparent manner". He added that the highest-ever voter turnouts in the recent Assembly Elections are proof of the trust that Indian electors have in the country's electoral system. Along with CEC Kumar, Election Commission Vivek Joshi also addressed the participants during the one-day conference, which witnessed the participation of over 260 Media and Communication Officers. While addressing the gathering, Joshi said that in today's digital world, AI, Deepfakes, synthetic content with an intent to mislead and even mischievous content are spread by motivated actors to erode trust in institutions. He urged the Media and Communication Officers to counter such attempts based on the rules, instructions and guidelines of the Commission. He also called upon engaging young voters through Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs). The conference began with a wide overview of communication strategies across the election cycle - from roll to poll, ECINET, important constitutional provisions, and laws relating to media matters. Practical sessions were also organised on planning press notes and amplifying them through media and social media, tackling misinformation and narratives, engaging young electors through ELCs, communicating ECI initiatives to the public, the release said. The conference brought together Media Nodal Officers (MNOs) and Social Media Nodal Officers (SMNOs), along with District Media Nodal Officers/District Public Relations Officers (DPROs) from various districts of the 16 participating States/UTs, and senior officers from the respective State Departments of Public Relations (DPRs). The one-day conference facilitated experience-sharing by the officers from the States, which went to the polls recently and the dissemination of best practices, according to the ECI. (ANI)
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