In modern campaigns, access to the media is crucial to electoral success. Since this is how the most voters can be reached, it is essential to ensure fair media access for every candidate. Media buys can be expensive, and not every political party has the same financial resources.

Most countries’ electoral laws or regulations have provisions on media access. Many systems require the media to allow time/space on equal terms to all parties and candidates able to pay for advertising. Some may also require the media to allocate airtime fairly among candidates. Some systems provide public funds or free airtime to achieve a balance in the time available to the different parties. Eligibility requirements for equal time or public funding may be based on how a political party is categorized by electoral administrators when it registers, such as by the percentage of the vote it won in the previous election or the number of seats it holds in the legislature.

Equal Access

Most election laws or regulations require equal access and treatment for those wishing to broadcast election advertisements. In New Zealand, for example, the law “prohibits a broadcaster from offering or giving to any political party terms for broadcasting time that are more favourable than those offered or given to any other party for comparable time.” [1]

Equal access does not necessarily mean equal treatment. In a crowded field of competing candidates and parties, it may be difficult to decide who should appear in the media and in what order. Is there enough time for all the candidates’ advertisements to air within the official campaign period, or for the voters to absorb these messages? What time slots are the candidates allotted in the campaign, and when? Even if candidates have equal airtime, do they also have equal access to production resources needed to create their advertisements?

Allocation of Public Funds or Free Airtime

Even if all parties have equal access, they do not all have the same resources to pay for advertisements. To even out these differences, most systems allocate public funds for broadcast time or provide a certain amount of free airtime, for example on the national broadcaster (if applicable). An equitable formula for allocating resources or airtime may be based on how each political party has been categorized by the electoral management body (see above).

In Canada, the Chief Electoral Officer appoints a Broadcasting Arbitrator, who allocates paid and free airtime to political parties during an election according to a formula set by law. In India, the Election Commission gives all national and regional parties extensive free airtime on government-run media outlets. The Commission makes its allocations equitable by offering each party a fixed minimum number of hours plus additional time linked to the party’s performance in the previous election.

In New Zealand, parties may not use their own funds to buy radio or television time for broadcasting their election programs. Instead, the Broadcasting Act provides for allocation of free airtime during the official campaign period. This includes broadcasting the opening and closing speeches of political party leaders.[2] To qualify, political parties must have registered at least three months before Parliament was dissolved, or have at least five candidates running in the election. The allocation of free time is based on a number of criteria, including how many people voted for the party in the previous election, popular support for the party as shown in opinion polls, party membership figures and the number of MPs who belonged to that party at the time of dissolution of Parliament.[3]

Enforcement of Access

Countries that protect equal access to the media through legislation and regulations also generally have enforcement mechanisms. These are needed to ensure that the intent and letter of the law are applied. Enforcement differs according to the system and the legal requirements. In New Zealand, the law requires every broadcaster to provide the Electoral Commission with a report on all election programs broadcast for parties and candidates during the campaign period. The report must include:

• the name of the candidate or political party for which each election program was broadcast;
• the length of each election program and the time when it was broadcast; and
• the amount paid for broadcasting each election program and the rates by which the amount was fixed [4]

In most systems, the law also enables parties or candidates to take legal action against broadcasters who they believe have treated them unfairly. Related criminal offences are handled separately through the criminal justice system.