Whether
or not a country allows paid political advertising in broadcasting is likely to
depend heavily on the traditions in its style and ownership of broadcasting and
consequently the type of regulatory system that has evolved.
The
issue of paid advertising for political parties or candidates in print media is
generally uncontroversial. The practice worldwide is almost universally the
same: advertising is permitted, subject only to other limitations such as
campaign spending ceilings and sometimes restrictions on content.
However,
the fact that many countries have followed a different course with regard to
political advertising on radio and television can be put down to two factors:
- First, the cost of
advertising on radio or, especially, television is usually much greater
than in the print media.
- Second, broadcasters are
either publicly owned or receive their share of the frequency spectrum
from a public body.
Of
course, neither of these factors in itself automatically leads to a prohibition
on political advertising over the airwaves. But they do perhaps explain why the
approach has been different.
Broadly
speaking, countries with a long tradition of public ownership of broadcasting,
such as France, the United Kingdom, and Denmark, have tended to be hostile to
paid political advertising. Those with a stronger commercial broadcasting
tradition - the United States represents the extreme - have tended to regard
political advertising as natural. It is notable that the European country where
commercial broadcasting is most dominant - Finland - should also be the one
where unrestricted political advertising is permitted.
This
is the rough tendency, but there are many exceptions. Canada, for example,
which has a public broadcasting tradition similar to the British, has an
approach to political advertising much closer to its southern neighbour. Nor is
the issue necessarily to do with whether a public broadcaster accepts
commercial advertising. The British Broadcasting Corporation has always
maintained a strict prohibition on commercial advertising, but French public
broadcasting has permitted it since the 1960s. Each maintains an equally strict
embargo on political advertising.
A
common pattern, of course, is for the public broadcaster to give free direct
access slots according to predetermined criteria, while private broadcasters
sell advertising slots to parties and candidates, often according to different
criteria. This is the case, for example, in Germany, and was too in Italy
immediately after the legalization of private commercial broadcasting.
The
Argument For Paid Political Advertising
The
argument in favour of paid political advertising is a freedom of speech
argument and finds its apogee in the United States. There it is generally
assumed that the First Amendment to the Constitution - prohibiting Congress
from passing laws "abridging" free speech - protects paid
advertising. Indeed, existing campaign contribution limits are often criticized
as being in violation of the First Amendment. Other arguments in favour state
that paid political advertising promotes a greater quantity and diversity of
views and encourages public debate; while simultaneously not being a burden on
the tax dollar.
Some
research also indicates that political advertising can be educational, for
example a study that looked at long-term change (1952 – 2000) in the public’s
assessments of presidential candidates in the United States, which concluded
that
While news may be
more sensational and less substantive than in the past, campaign advertising
has become more substantive in content and has grown tremendously in reach,
frequency, and sophistication.
Indeed, this study
argues that
…the public's
steady level of information and increased focus on policy in presidential
politics reflects the high level of policy content in paid ads, which have
compensated for the shift of news coverage toward candidate character, scandal,
and the horserace.[i]
The
Argument Against Paid Political Advertising
The
argument against paid political advertising is an equality argument: all
parties or candidates should have equal or fair access to direct broadcasting
regardless of the state of their campaign finance. Countries that favour an
equal direct access system almost always have a prohibition on paid
advertising. But so do many, such as the United Kingdom, which operate
"equity" systems.
Some
argue that paid advertising in fact increases the "dumbing down" of
political debate. It is clear that paid commercials are generally much shorter
in length than free direct access slots and generally tend to sell a candidate
or party (or denigrate the opponent) rather than develop an argument. The
difference in length is striking: the average length of paid advertising slots
in Finland is 10-25 seconds and in the United States 30-60 seconds. In France,
the United Kingdom, and Denmark the length of free slots ranges from five to 10
minutes.
In addition, paid political advertising
“can even lead to a political dependence on campaign fundraising, undermining
the integrity of the democratic system.” In other words, leaders skew their
decisions and direct their statements toward those likely to generate
donations, instead of acting in the best interests of their constituents.[ii]
What
is striking, however, is the number of countries that have a mixture of paid
and unpaid direct access broadcasting. Usually, the approach will be to
allocate parties a basic share of free direct access time, which can then be
topped up with paid advertising if the party chooses to do so and can afford
it.
[i] Martin Gilens,
Lynn Vavreck
and Martin Cohen, “The Mass Media and the
Public’s Assessments of Presidential Candidates (1952 – 2000)”, Journal of
Politics 69, no. 4 (2007):1160,
http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Mass%20Media%20and%20Public%20Perceptions/Gilens%20et%20al%202007
[ii] Michael
Karanicolas Regulation of paid
advertising: A survey, (Centre for Law and Democracy, March 2012),
http://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Elections-and-Broadcasting-Final.pdf
