Right to Information (RTI) activist Lawan Thakur alleged that district electoral officers (DEOs) had failed to develop a mechanism to check and stop the paid news menace in the Assembly elections in the state.
Thakur alleged that the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) at the district and state-levels were ineffective and not able to give time and attention to check paid news during the Assembly elections. Activist claimed that he had tried to gather details of cases of paid news detected by all 12 DEOs in the state and it seemed that they were taking the issue lightly.
He said the MCMC had been formed to monitor and control paid news, but it had no time to meet, get information from newspaper and electronic media. Everything had been left on district public relation officers to do the same with their routine jobs.
He said none of the DEO or MCMC had taken any suo-motu action so far and action was initiated only when a written complaint was registered.
He added that he had written to the Election Commission to intervene in the matter.
