A district-level monitoring committee has concluded that news items published in five newspapers by Shiv Sena candidate from the Parbhani Lok Sabha constituency Sanjay Jadhav be treated as "paid news", election office sources said Thursday.
The Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) has been set up by the district administration to keep a watch on news items and political advertisements appearing on various media platforms ahead of voting here on April 18.
The panel had been monitoring various news items and political advertisements appearing in the media related to candidates in the fray.
The MCMC, during its observation, found that Jadhav had published similar news items in five different newspapers which it deemed as instances of "paid news", the sources said.
A notice was served to Jadhav, asking him to clarify with 48 hours that why these paid news items should not be considered as "election expenditure" since they are a part of an advertisement, they said.
No reply was received from Jadhav or his associates within the stipulated time period following which the MCMC decided to include the amount spent on paid news in the Sena candidate's election expenses, the sources said.
The committee is headed by the District Election Officer.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
