The Election Commission has served a notice on the BJP candidate from Sawaimadhopur Assembly seat, Diya Kumari, in what appears to be a case of paid news.
With that, the district-level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) in Sawaimadhopur has started investigating whether the publication of a photograph of Ms. Kumari — it appeared in several major newspapers, websites and blogs on Wednesday — could fall under paid news.
The photograph shows Ms. Kumari, member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur, enjoying a lunch of bajre ki roti, onions and chillies with villagers from her constituency.
The instance came under the EC scanner because the same photograph appeared in several newspapers and was released by the PTI as well.
Ms. Kumari’s public relations team admitted that she had indeed received a notice from the EC. “We are preparing our reply... its just that several photographers captured the event and therefore a similar photograph was published in more than one publication,” Jagdeep Singh, the head of her PR campaign, told The Hindu .
However, Sawaimadhopur Collector and member of the district-level MCMC, Poonam, said the committee was only investigating the matter and a notice had not been served yet. “We are investigating the case... collecting cuttings from some other newspapers... if it’s verified as an instance of paid news, the committee will serve a notice on the candidate,” Ms. Poonam told The Hindu .
According to the Election Commission’s guidelines on paid news, once the district-level MCMC decides that a suspected case, such as this one, is indeed a case of paid news, “the actual/notional expenditure (of publication) shall be treated as part of election expenses of the candidate concerned.”
