Chandigarh, Sep 5 (Inditop.com) The Election Commission (EC) Saturday said that it had received several complaints about ‘surrogate news’ in the media to favour one politician or the other, but admitted that it was very difficult to prove the charge.
“This is a real problem. It is very difficult to prove ‘paid news’. The information regarding this has to come from you (media),” Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla told reporters here after meeting political parties and officials ahead of the assembly elections in Haryana next month.
“We have received complaints. We have asked political parties to give us something in writing about this,” Chawla added.
There have been reports that some media publications and news channels have been favouring political parties and leaders for which they were being paid underhand.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani, in a recent interview, also referred to this menace.
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