Kolkata: Like in other states, the Election Commission (EC) will organise a workshop in West Bengal for mediapersons ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to reach its directives upto the grassroot level and prevent electoral malpractices.
"For the first time, such a nationwide drive has been undertaken by the EC to prevent electoral malpractices, educate the media in particular and help its directives percolate upto grassroot level to ensure free and fair poll," state`s Assistant Chief Electoral Officer Amit Jyoti Bhattacharya told a news agency.
The workshop would be held here on March 4 in collaboration with the state Information and Cultural Affairs Department and the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Bhattacharya said.
West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sunil Gupta said that the day-long deliberation and interaction would go into the details of the entire election process "to ensure how we can make it free, fair and incident-free."
Similar workshops had already been conducted by the EC for nine recognised political parties in the state, he said.
"Besides paid news, the workshop will deal with subjects like media monitoring operations, certification committees, Model Code of Conduct and Sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 that deals with restrictions on publishing election-related news," Bhattacharya said.
