Paid news to be added to campaign expenditure

KOCHI: The cost of a news item or advertisement identified as paid news will be included in the campaign expenditure of the respective candidates.The Media Certification and Monitoring Cell, which has been formed to keep tabs on paid news, will report to the observers if it comes across any instance of breach of election code of conduct. Any news favouring candidates will be considered as ‘paid’. News and news-related programmes and advertisements in newspapers, or on radio and television will be monitored and reports will be submitted to the District Collector and observers.The bulk SMS option offered by mobile companies will also be monitored. The cell will act on issues based on the criterion fixed by the Press Council of India. The cell is headed by a committee with Additional District Magistrate E K Sujatha as its convener. General Observer Umakanth Panwar and Expenditure Observer K Veerabhadra Reddy will analyse the functioning of the cell. Deputy directors of the Press Information Bureau and the Information and Public Relations Department and the field officer of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity are the other members in the committee. The students from the Kerala Press Academy will also work as volunteers in the cell.