BJP urged to clarify on uncertified ads
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 06 2017: The Editors' Guild, Manipur today met and discussed the show cause notices issued to eight Editors of Imphal based newspapers by the Election Commission of India for carrying an advertisement made by the Manipur unit of the BJP on March 3 .

The meeting took serious view of the fact that the BJP authorities inserted the advertisement by giving media certification which was not related to the advertisement material submitted by it thus inviting the ECI to issue the show cause notices.

It has come to the knowledge of the Editors from the Addl.

CEO that the material submitted for advertisement had been rejected by the State level MCMC., said EGM in a statement.

However, the material was accepted by the media houses concerned in good faith as it was submitted along with a media certification.

Since the CEO's office has now served show cause notices to the media houses and filed FIRs against 8 Editors, EGM said that it is constrained to ask the BJP Manipur unit to clarify as to how it submitted an advertisement which was not cleared by the State level MCMC.

Failure to clarify would be construed as a deliberate attempt to mislead the media houses.

"We also condemn the act that has put the Editors of Manipur in poor light and unfair legal complicacies," added EGM.

"From the Editors' side, we have submitted the replies to the CEO explaining the circumstance under which the advertisements were published and also urged the CEO's office to take up measures so that similar incident does not take place in future," added EGM.

The All Manipur Working Journalists Union, (AMWJU) has also strongly condemned the manner in which political parties in the State have tried to use the State media unfairly in their election campaigns.

AMWJU in particular is shocked that the State BJP fooled all major newspapers in the State with an illegal advertisement, leaving these newspapers with the prospect of facing legal action at the hands of the Election Commission of India, conveyed a press release.

The BJP had booked full page front page colour advertisements on March 3 with all the major newspapers in Manipur, saying these advertisements had prior approval certificates of the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC).

It has now turned out this is not true.

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