The Election Commission (EC) has asked the Chief Electoral Officers of Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry, where Assembly elections have been announced, to direct the district election officers (DEOs) to immediately constitute district-level committees to monitor and investigate paid news.
The committees should scrutinise all newspapers to locate political advertisements in the garb of news coverage appearing during the election period. The DEOs should closely monitor advertisements in the print medium in any form, including surrogate advertising in the form of news, and serve notice to candidates or parties so that such expenses are included in the election expenditure account.
The committees should keep a watch on election news/features on the TV/cable TV channels and radio.
