Increasingly, electoral supervisory bodies work in collaboration with non-governmental organizations of different sorts. This co-operation is a practical realization of the general proposition that an active civil society is needed to safeguard democracy. There are three main areas where this collaboration is likely to take place in relation to media coverage of elections.
Training of Journalists
The regulatory body itself will often not have the capacity to organize training of journalists in election reporting skills, yet it is very much in its interests that those skills be imparted. In such circumstances, it can work in collaboration with journalism training institutions - and with the media houses themselves when they have in-house training schemes. The Tanzanian National Election Commission in 2000 went further afield and contracted the British Broadcasting Corporation to provide training for journalists.
Media Monitoring
International non-governmental organizations such as ARTICLE 19 and the European Institute of the Media have acquired considerable expertise in media monitoring. In a number of national elections, domestic non-governmental organizations have worked in partnership with international groups and have themselves acquired skills that allowed them to monitor. Hence, the Malawi Electoral Commission in 1994 relied heavily in its media work on the findings of a non-governmental monitoring project launched by local freedom-of-expression activists in collaboration with ARTICLE 19. In 1994, the South African Independent Broadcasting Authority contracted the non-governmental Media Monitoring Project to work with it.
Monitoring Media Freedom
Non-governmental human rights groups, as well as professional media bodies and journalists' trade unions, will monitor respect for media freedom as a matter of course. The regulatory body, by developing a working relationship and an exchange of information with such groups, can lend its authority to condemnation of violations of media freedom. It can also use its powers over government and political parties to prevent such incidents or to hold their perpetrators accountable.
