Often
an existing regulatory body will take on the function of supervising aspects of
media coverage of elections, either on its own or in conjunction with the
election administration itself.
This
was the approach taken, for example, in the South African elections in 1999.
The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the constitutionally mandated
body that regulated all public, private, and community broadcasting, issued
regulations governing a series of issues:
- Advertising and election
broadcasting;
- Timing of election
broadcasting;
- A formula for allocating
election broadcast time to different parties;
- General observations on the
quality of coverage expected.
The
latter section includes this general observation:
Every broadcaster who transmits news or current affairs
programmes in respect of the elections shall do so in an impartial and
objective manner and in a manner which treats all parties fairly.
In an
annex to the regulations, the authority went on to elaborate what were the
responsibilities of broadcasters (and the role of the IBA):
The Authority
does not intervene in the news and programming operations of the broadcasters.
Broadcasters' role during elections does not differ from their normal
journalistic role during non-election periods. Normal ethical considerations
will continue to apply. A distinguishing feature of the election period is the
obligation to achieve equitable coverage of political parties without
abdicating news value judgments.
Italy
is another country where the existing media regulators have principal
responsibility for supervising media coverage of elections. In that case, there
are two separate bodies: a Parliamentary Oversight Committee that has
responsibility for public broadcasting, and AGCOM, an independent
non-government regulator for radio, television, and the press, which is
responsible for the privately-owned media. Both institutions make regulations
governing coverage by the respective media sectors in elections.
