Giving a jolt to Bharatiya Janata Party during a crucial time of National elections 2019, the Election Commission of India on Thursday restricted ‘NaMo TV’ from telecasting any political content until approved by the contempt authority. The Poll Body said that the NAMO TV needs a pre-requisite certificate from MCMC Committee of Delhi only after which it can run political publicity content.
The Poll Body said all Political Content needs to have a nod from local media certification committee.
In a letter to Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, the Election Commission said, “It has been confirmed by you that there has not been any pre-certification of the content being displayed on NaMo TV/content TV, by the MCMC Committee in your office… Any political publicity content, being displayed on electronic media without requisite certification from competent authority should be removed immediately and any political content shall only be permitted strictly in accordance with EC instructions in this regard.”
Letter states 'any political publicity content,being displayed on electronic media without requisite certification from competent authority should be removed immediately&any political content shall only be permitted strictly in accordance with EC instructions in this regard'(2/3)
— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019
Election Commission further directed the Chief Electoral Officer to ensure implementation of the Commission’s instructions. The Poll Body further sought a compliance report on the issue.
The Poll Body earlier asked the Delhi CEO to ensure that all the content that is being Telecasted by the NAMO TV is certified by the media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC).
Opposition parties including Aam Aadmi Party and Congress had earlier approached the Election Commission with a complaint about the same. In its letter to the Ec, AAP questioned if BJP sought permission before launching this channel. And if not, then why did Election commission did not take any stand on it?
Responding to the complaints of many opposition parties, the poll body issued a notice to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. In its response to the notice, the Ministry said that concerned TV Channel is an advertisement platform launched by DTH service providers and therefore it does not require approval from the Centre.
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