Election Commission for a panel to approve poll publicity scripts for DD, AIR

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has asked Prasar Bharti to set up a committee to approve scripts of political parties' election publicity on Doordarshan and AIR, following complaints that there were "considerable deviations" in the wordings cleared by the two public broadcasters during the Bihar polls.

In a recent letter to Prasar Bharti, the Commission said some political parties have brought to its notice that in certain cases "on submission of the same transcript to All India Radio and Doordarshan by political parties, there were considerable deviations between the scripts as approved by AIR and DD.

The EC was referring to complaints received during the Bihar assembly polls held in October-November last year.

The Commission said that to "rule out any such confusion and deviation in all future elections", the broadcasting corporation should constitute an Apex Review Committee of both AIR and DD.

"In case of any difference of opinion/approval between AIR and DD and political parties related to transcript of broadcast/telecast, matter may be referred to this Apex Review Committee for final decision."

The Commission allots broadcast and telecast time to political parties for carrying out their election campaign on Doordarshan and All India Radio during assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

The parties are required to submit transcripts and recordings in advance. The parties can get these recorded at their own cost in studios, which meet the technical standards prescribed by Prasar Bharti or at the Doordarshan/All India Radio Kendras.