Media Sensitization workshop held
Apropos to the guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI), a media sensitization workshop chaired by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Maneesh Garg was held here today in which various issues pertaining to paid and fake news, besides pre-certification of advertisements and its monitoring parameters set up by the Election Commission were discussed in length.
CEO said that Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMC) have been constituted at the State and district level to monitor the same and approve the contents of advertisements to be issued or displayed by political parties as per the guidelines.
He also cleared the doubts of the media persons about the election coverage issues, the sections prohibiting the conduct of exit polls, dissemination of results as per parameters set by Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding the advertisement in print, electronic and social media and also settled few queries as put forth to him by those present.
He said that as the media persons were included in the essential services for the first time by ECI, they can fill the form 12-D and submit the same to their Returning officers by 21/10/22 for exercising their right-to-franchise through postal ballot in case they are issued authority passes by the Election Commission, for the day of poll. The above facility is available on a voluntary basis.
The CEO said that Media plays a very important role in awareness of the general public and should follow the voluntary code of ethics, during the entire duration of the election process including polling day and thereafter on the counting day and the day of declaration of results.
Naib Tehsildar, Training Munshi Ram Sharma also gave a detailed presentation about the do’s and dont’s to be followed by the media during the code of conduct. The electronic media will not take any interview or question the voters within 100 meters periphery of the polling booths which shall amount to violation of code of conduct, said he. Also, there should be no violation of the secrecy of voting.
Additional CEO, Dalip Negi and media persons from various media houses participated in the workshop.
