Jammu, Apr 09 (KNS): The Election Commission of India (ECI) has put in place an effective monitoring system to keep watch on any violation by English, Hindi and regional news channels on the day of poll and a day prior to the polling during the Lok Sabha elections -2019.

The Commission has entrusted the job of media monitoring to Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

On the day of poll and a day prior to the poll, the EMMC will send two-hourly report to the Election Commission of India and the concerned Chief Electoral Officer. The CEO concerned will file Action Taken Report (ATR) through the Media Monitoring and Response Team on the items reported by EMMC in the form of ATR.

For the prompt action, EMMC shall forward the Media Report of any important events/MCC violation/search and seizure across the State to the CEO and ECI. On the completion of each phase of poll, an analysis on Media Monitoring based on EMMC report and action taken at ECI/CEO level shall be submitted to the Commission for perusal and information. After the election is over, a consolidated analytical report shall be submitted to the Commission on a dynamic/comparative chart format.

Defining the role of CEOs, the guidelines of Election Commission envisages that the CEO will ascertain status on the items on the report and file ATR/Status Report within two hours before the generation of next report to the Commission for its perusal/action. The analysis of Media Monitoring shall be done by the ECI after each phase of poll and final analysis will be done after the elections are over.

Meantime, the EC has imposed complete prohibition on broadcasting or propagating election-related material on TV, Radio or newspapers. Any such material influencing the voters would not be permissible during the 48 hours before the polls. However, any advertisement being published in the newspapers during this specified period requires prior permission/certification from the ECI. (KNS)