Takedown notices mark a new turn in EC’s frosty relations with the press
· Scroll
Earlier this week, a 2019 document came back to haunt the Election Commission. It did not contain explosive, classified information – just harmless guidelines for election candidates.
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The problem was that it bore the stamp of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Opposition was quick to decry the document as the poll panel scrambled to explain the “clerical error” – the BJP had requested clarifications on the guidelines and an official had “inadvertently redistributed” the document to other parties as part of the request.
But as the document went viral online, journalists who had shared social media posts with an image of the guidelines began to get notices from the Kerala Police, which is reporting to the Election Commission with state polls just weeks away. The notice demanded that they remove the posts because they “insulted” the poll body and undermined communal harmony.
Instagram and Facebook blocked Scroll’s posts about the controversy citing a “legal request”.
Since the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu to the Election Commission in March 2024, the poll panel has struggled to explain its actions to journalists. Its strategy to contain the resulting awkwardness had been to keep mum and move on.
In June 2024, on the eve of the general election results, I had a...