NEW DELHI: The Election Commission, in its guidelines to the Chief Electoral Officers of Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry, has asked them to direct the district election officers (DEOs) to immediately constitute district-level committees to monitor and investigate paid news.

The committees should keep a watch on election news/features on TV/cable TV channels and radio. “When there is coverage disproportionate to the speech or activities of a candidate on TV/radio, which is likely to influence voters and yield electoral benefit to a particular candidate and when the same coverage appears on several channels, then the candidate should be served with notice asking him/her to explain why the coverage should not be treated as an advertisement.”

Poll malpractice

Stating that the recent phenomenon of paid news has assumed an alarming proportion as a serious electoral malpractice, the Commission quoted the Press Council of India's definition of paid news: “Any news or analysis appearing in any media [print and electronic] for a price in cash or kind as consideration.”

For fixing the amount spent on paid news, the accounting team of the election expenditure monitoring committee would take the rate, whichever is lower, fixed by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (of the Centre) and the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (of the State governments) for calculation.

In the event of a dispute by the candidate in admitting the expenditure on paid news, the case might be considered in appeal by the State-level committee to be set up by the CEO.