New Delhi. The Election Commission on Friday organized the second one-day national conference with the aim of making the role of media and communication officers effective. The conference was attended by more than 260 officials including Media Nodal Officers, Social Media Nodal Officers, District Media Nodal Officers, District Public Relations Officers (DPROs) and senior officials of Public Relations Departments from 16 States and Union Territories. Addressing the conference, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that every action of the Election Commission is taken with complete transparency on the basis of the Indian Constitution, election laws and written instructions issued from time to time. He advised the officers to be alert against misleading and fake narratives being spread on social media. The Chief Election Commissioner said that officials have to play a proactive role in preventing the spread of misinformation and rumours. The record voting percentage in the recent assembly elections is proof that the voters of the country have full faith in the electoral system.
Election Commissioner Dr. Vivek Joshi said that in the digital age, efforts are being made to weaken people’s trust in institutions through Artificial Intelligence (AI), deepfakes, artificially created misleading material and mischievous content. He called on officials to respond effectively to such attempts based on Election Commission rules, guidelines and procedures.
Dr. Joshi also stressed on connecting the youth with the democratic process and said that young voters should be reached out effectively through Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs).
Various aspects related to the electoral process were discussed in detail during the conference. This included topics ranging from voter list to voting process, ECInet, constitutional provisions and laws related to media, preparing press notes, disseminating them widely through media and social media, dealing with misinformation and making the Election Commission’s initiatives available to the general public.
As part of the programme, participants were also shown practical demonstrations of voter list preparation, voting process and counting process. He was also taken on a tour of the Election Commission’s exhibition and media corner.
At the conference, officials from states that had recently conducted elections shared their experiences and highlighted various successful initiatives and best practices. The program concluded with a question and answer session between the participants and the Election Commission.
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