Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar : Candidates and political parties contesting the upcoming elections have been barred from using religious places, armed forces imagery, hate content, misleading claims or personal attacks in campaign videos and advertisements, the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee has said.
Announcing the guidelines, election officials said campaign material must not contain objectionable visuals, indecent or obscene content, defamatory statements, deliberately distorted information or material that promotes violence and threatens law and order. Candidates have been specifically told not to use visuals of temples, mosques, gurdwaras or other religious places in election publicity. Content capable of inciting communal or caste tensions, encouraging anti-national activities or undermining national integration has also been prohibited. Photographs of armed forces personnel and military officers cannot be used for campaigning either. The guidelines also bar content that could amount to contempt of court, undermine the judiciary or President, or violate the country’s sovereignty and unity. Advertisements must not ridicule any race, caste, religion, colour or nationality, encourage criminal activities, or glorify obscenity and violence. Poll campaign material must comply with laws governing the portrayal of women and children. Content promoting superstition, fraudulent practices or hostility towards linguistic and regional groups is prohibited. Advertisements promoting cigarettes, tobacco products and intoxicants are also not allowed. To streamline scrutiny of campaign material, media certification and monitoring committees have been set up in the collectorates of all eight Marathwada districts. Candidates can obtain mandatory certification for advertisements and campaign videos through these committees. Shreekant appealed to candidates and political parties to familiarise themselves with the rules before producing campaign material and ensure strict compliance with Election Commission directions.