Tirupati: Political advertisements should get prior approval of MCMC says DEO Pravin Kumar

Tirupati : Collector and District Election Officer (DEO) Pravin Kumar said that prior approval is necessary for all political advertisements in print and electronic media. He chaired media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) meeting on Monday at the Collectorate and said that following the guidelines of Election Commission of India (ECI), district-level media certification and monitoring committee has been appointed.

The MCMC will look into the aspects giving prior approvals to political advertisements in the media and will monitor paid news. If any violations are found, it will take proper actions. Registered national and State political parties or candidates contesting on those parties tickets should apply for approvals for their political advertisements in the prescribed proforma three days in advance.

Non-registered political parties or candidates should apply one week in advance. The MCMC will go through the applications and issue approvals after taking into consideration whether the advertisements are in accordance with the model code of conduct (MCC). It will issue approval within two days of receiving the application if the material is in compliance with the MCC, said the Collector. The Collector made it clear that on the day of polling and a day before the polling, advertisements should be published in the newspapers only after getting MCMC approval. He said that so far 258 negative news items were published in newspapers out of which action was initiated on 251. Further, till now 19 approvals were given for the campaign content and advertisements of political parties.

The media channels should not telecast any advertisements without a telecast certificate and the order number of the approval should be displayed on the advertisement. The Collector asked the MCMS to have regular monitoring of MCC violations of political content in print and electronic media. MCMC member secretary Balakondaiah, All India Radio programme manager Sudhakar Mohan and others took part.