Political
parties use different media during the electoral campaign period to send out
their messages and appeal for popular support. Although the role and importance
of web-based social media has dramatically increased in recent years, in most
countries traditional media, such as radio, TV and print media are still the most
widely used during the campaign period.
State-owned
media favouritism towards incumbent candidates and parties—in terms of biased
reporting, gender discrimination in coverage and reporting, coverage time,
discrimination against opposition forces, unethical reporting and so on—is
often a factor in raising tensions. Private media may adopt the same practices
to champion their own favoured candidates. Such a scenario can increase
tensions and fuel election-related violence directed against both political
opponents and critical and/or investigative journalists.
Empirical cases:
- Cambodia
parliamentary election 2008.
Most media networks were perceived as biased towards the Cambodia People’s
Party (CPP) during the elections. In addition, a journalist working for Moneaksekar Khmer, an opposition newspaper affiliated with
the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), was killed roughly two weeks before election day.
The journalist was well known for his critical articles on official corruption.
The fact that no one was arrested for the murders was interpreted by observers
as a warning signal to other journalists and opposition members.[1]
Interrelated factors: problematic voter registration (internal); poor voter information campaign (internal);[2]
problematic election day operations (internal); poor
management of the final round of electoral appeals (internal);
the presence of non-state armed actors (external);
poor voter information campaign (internal); poor
management of election results (internal).[3]
