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POLITICS: Hundreds back petitions calling for action on political advertising
Scores of petitions have been started on Change.org on the subject of political advertising since the EU Referendum result was announced on Friday (June 25).
One petition calls for an independent body to monitor political campaigns so that voters can distinguish facts.
Writing on his petition, Josh Babarinde said: “In the recent referendum on the EU one thing became clear to me: in political campaigns it’s becoming hard to distinguish fact from fiction. I’m worried this is undermining the integrity of our democratic system.
“We have a body, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), that monitors truth in Corporate campaigns, it’s about time we had one for politics as well.
I would like to see UK party leaders and the Electoral Commission working with advice from groups like the ASA to establish an independent Office of Electoral Integrity (OEI) to factually verify the truthfulness of claims made during political campaigns.”
Another petition started in the wake of Brexit says Nigel Farage should be prosecuted for the Leave campaign’s use of its ‘Breaking Point’ poster.
Meanwhile Andrew Bickerdike wants it to become a criminal offence to ‘knowingly mislead the public to achieve electoral gain.’
For more information on any of these petitions go to change.org/eureferendum or email press.uk@change.org