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Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Nagaland has notified that all advertisements of political nature on TV channels, cable networks and print media need to be pre-certified by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC).
A notification issued by the CEO stated that no political party, candidate, organisation or person should publish any advertisement in the print media on the poll day and one day prior to poll day, unless the contents of the advertisement proposed to be published by the political parties, candidates, etc. are pre-certified by them from the MCMC committee at the state or district level.
It also stated that the committee should entertain applications for certification for advertisement on television channel and cable network by the registered political parties, organisations or group of persons or associations having their headquarters or registered offices in the state.
The CEO cited the Election Commission of India letter issued on October 19, 2020, wherein it noted instances of advertisements of “offending and misleading nature published in print media brought to the notice of the Commission in the past”.
“Such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process. The affected candidates and parties will not have any opportunity of providing clarification/rebuttal in such cases,” read the statement.
The Commission had informed that while taking a decision on the applications for certification of an advertisement, it will be open for the committee, designated officer or the review committee to direct deletion or modification of any part of the advertisement and in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court, it should issue a certificate to the effect of the advertisement concerned is fit for telecast, it said.
In order to facilitate the process of pre-certification of the newspaper advertisements, it said the MCMC at state or district level should be immediately alerted and activated in order to examine and pre-certify all such advertisements received from the political parties, candidates and others.