District Administration To Caution Cable TV Operators

Coimbatore district administration will soon write to local cable operators against airing advertisements of political nature without consent.

Consent

The communication is aimed at cautioning the operators to air such advertisements only with consent as the Media Control and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) has no way to checking advertisements that are carried at the local level by the operators, say sources familiar with the development.

While the MCMC has the wherewithal to monitor the content of channels that go through the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation, it cannot monitor advertisements, if any, that are inserted at the operator level. Therefore, the communication is aimed at cautioning them to follow the law.

Likewise, the MCMC will also ask Coimbatore-based news organisations and FM radio stations to submit daily details of political advertisements they have carried, the charges levied there for and if the advertisers have submitted copies of the approval it has given for the content.

The sources also say that the MCMC has also written to publishers of newspapers in Coimbatore to share the details of the political advertisements that they have carried, if any, and their charges.

Monitoring

Besides this, the MCMC will also start monitoring advertisements of candidates in the fray. But this will be after the date of withdrawal of nominations so that the details of who is in the fray is clear.

The MCMC also welcomes complaints about poll code violations, the sources add.―The Hindu