India elections 2019: NaMo TV barred from airing political content

New Delhi - The poll body said any political publicity material on electronic media without certification should be removed immediately.

The Election Commission on Thursday ruled that since political content being aired on NaMo TV - a channel dedicated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rallies and speeches - has not been pre-certified, it should be immediately removed.
The poll panel wrote to Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer to execute its instructions and "immediately" file a compliance report.
"As NaMo TV/Content TV is sponsored by a political party, all recorded programmes of political contents displayed on the channel/platform would be covered under the purview of the Commission's Order... Accordingly all recorded programmes with political contents are mandatorily required to be pre-certified by the MCMC (Media Certification and Monitoring Committee) before telecasting," the Election Commission said.
"Any political publicity materials/contents, being displayed on electronic media without the requisite certification from competent authotity should be removed immediately and any political content shall only be permitted strictly in accordance with the ECI instructions in this regard," the letter said.
Earlier, the EC had asked Delhi's CEO to confirm if the TV channel had sought its permission to air its programmes and had got it pre-certified. It noted that the Delhi CEO had confirmed there had been no pre-certification of the content.

• India