Mysuru:  An exclusive Media Cell has been set up at the Office of the Information Department on Dhanvantri Road here to monitor media publicity indulged by political parties and to report if there are any violations in the Election Model Code of Conduct.

The Cell has been set up on the first floor of the Department based on the directive of Election Commission of India (ECI) that has asked all the District Election Officers to constitute Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

The task of the Media Cell is to watch all television channels, monitor social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp and record all the messages/ programmes and submit a report to Deputy Commissioner K.B. Sivakumar, who is the District Electoral Officer if there are any violations. The Cell, set up on Apr. 3, has been functioning 24×7 and will continue till May 12. This is for the first time that such a Cell has been set up in Mysuru.

Speaking to SOM this morning, Nagendra, who has been entrusted with the responsibility of setting up and maintaining the Cell, said that four big LED screens have been set up to monitor the National and State TV channels and five smaller computer monitors have been installed to monitor local TV channels. This apart, a separate facility to record all election publicity on FM Radio channels has been installed, he added.

Nine government employees have been appointed and they are monitoring media publicity round-the-clock in three shifts. The responsibility of screening all newspapers has been entrusted to the officials of the Information Department. They are supposed to read newspapers and cut the clippings in case of violation and report to the District Election Officer.

The EC has asked officers  to monitor TV channels and social media platforms so that the Model Code of Conduct is established, to ensure that the publicity mediums are not misused as well as to ensure it is used in the best interests of democracy. Monitoring officers must ensure that there should be no coverage of any election speeches or other material that incites violence, one religion against, another one caste against another one language group against another etc.

The officers must ensure that there is “balanced and fair” coverage — no one political party should be given substantially more coverage than others. This “balance” need not be achieved in any single day or in a single story but over a reasonable period of time.

They must see to it that the parties and candidates indulge in healthy campaigns and prevent the media from reporting exaggerated reports (positive and negative) about a candidate or a party during the course of elections.