The Hindu : Stop telecast of slanderous advertisements: EC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

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Stop telecast of slanderous advertisements: EC

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 27. Taking a serious view of the complaints on "surrogate" and "slanderous" advertisements being aired on certain television channels against the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, the Election Commission has asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to take "appropriate action," including prohibiting or regulating the airing of these advertisements.

Briefing presspersons, the Deputy Election Commissioner, A.N. Jha, said the Congress had complained of advertisements in some channels raising Ms. Gandhi's foreign origin. There were similar complaints about some Tamil channels in Tamil Nadu also. After examining the complaints, the Commission had asked the Ministry to take appropriate action and inform it of the action taken by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 29.

The Congress had alleged that the advertisement with an oblique reference to Ms. Gandhi — purportedly issued by Kamakshi Educational Society and being relayed by some channels — was unconstitutional and violative of the model code of conduct and should be stopped immediately. It sought to incite violence and was a fit case for prosecution.

To a question, Mr. Jha said the directive would apply to all forms of surrogate advertisements, including the latest on India's victory over Pakistan in the One-Day International cricket series which suggested that while the Tricolour flew on foreign soil, the Congress had "handed over the Indian flag to a foreigner."

Mr. Jha said that notwithstanding the Andhra Pradesh High Court striking down Rule 7 (3) of the the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994, there were other provisions in Rules empowering the Government to prohibit or regulate the offending advertisements.

The Commission felt that the law under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act and its Rules were adequate to deal with the issue. Asked whether the Commission would take action if there was no positive response from the Government, Mr. Jha said "it depends on the reply."

Asked on the steps to prevent personalised attacks during the campaign, Mr. Jha said the issue would be discussed during the all-party meet convened by the Commission on April 6 on the question of exit and opinion polls.

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