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Paid
news, opinion polls cause concern
Friday February 04, 2011 05:46:54 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: With five
states going for assembly polls before May, Chief Election
Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi Friday said that paid news was a matter
of grave concern for the election panel.
He also suggested that opinion polls should be banned during
elections.
Elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puduchery
are scheduled to be held by May.
"Paid news around election time is a matter of great concern. It
attempts to deceive the voters and affect their opinion. All
political parties are unanimous that paid news is a big problem
because they are all hit by one another," Quraishi told reporters
here.
"There has to be some legal means to stop this," he added.
Quoting an example, Quraishi said: "In Bihar we had a media
monitoring body which kept a check on anything that appeared to be
like a paid news item. We sent 86 notices and called the
candidates who admitted they paid for the news. It worked."
Quraishi said the election commission and the law ministry were
organising seven regional consultations on electoral reforms.
Four of them - in Bhopal, Mumbai, Kolkata and Lucknow - have
already taken place and three more will take place in Chandigarh,
Bangalore and Guwahati.
It will culminate in a national consultation in New Delhi April
7-8.
"Among the suggested reforms is preventing criminals from
contesting elections. Political parties say that their opponents
keep filing false cases against them, but some means have to be
evolved to stop this. Parties should not give ticket to such
people," Quraishi said.
"State funding of elections is unfortunate, but it is increasing
and we are worried about it. We think that six months before the
elections, government advertisements should be stopped because
there is a possibility of misuse of public money," the chief
election commissioner added.
"Advertisements appear even on the poll day which may affect
opinions," he said.
While the election commission has the power to register a
political party, there is no power to deregister one. There are
many parties which do not exist and may be a money laundering
device, Quraishi added.
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