The question of media access to the polling stations themselves can sometimes be a cause of some tension - most of it unnecessary.
What the media require, for the most part, is fairly general access - film or still photographs of queues of potential voters, of people actually casting their vote and so on. Journalists are often given a degree of access that is not granted to the general public. Sometimes non-voters are excluded from polling stations altogether - an attempt to avoid last-minute intimidation - but journalists and observers who can produce their accreditation are exempt from this. However, it needs to be made absolutely clear to the media that, despite this privilege, they are subject to the same legal constraints as everyone else. Therefore nothing that they do inside a polling station (or anywhere else, for that matter) may constitute intimidation or influence on the election process. It should also be made clear that journalists' access to polling stations is only under the strict control and with the agreement of the election officer presiding.
It is vital to ensure that the precise policy on media access to polling stations is communicated in advance to presiding officials, as well as to the media themselves.
The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) (http://www.eisa.org.za) produced a useful list of "do's and don'ts" for the media in the 1999 South African elections. Media workers could:
- Show their press card to the presiding officer at polling and counting stations.
- Take photographs and conduct interviews with the agreement of the presiding officer.
- Take part in a "pool" system where large numbers of journalists who want a photograph or an interview with a personality are represented by selected few.
The guidelines also pointed out that in sensitive areas some voters might not want to have their photograph taken or be interviewed.
What media workers were not allowed to do was:
- Undermine the secrecy of the vote and orderliness of the election.
- Publish false information with the intention of disrupting or preventing the election.
- Publish information that caused hostility or fear to influence the outcome of the election.
- Publish information that may influence the conduct or outcome of an election.
- Publish the result of an exit poll during voting hours.
The EISA guidelines also pointed out that there were a number of general prohibitions that also applied to media workers, who could not:
- Interfere with the independence and impartiality of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
- Force or persuade anyone to register or not to register to vote.
- Force anyone to support or not support any political party or candidate.
- Take part in illegal political activity.
- Pretend to be a representative or candidate of a political party.
- Pretend to be involved in the IEC.
- Provide information about voting, counting of votes, or break the seal or open a ballot box in which there were voting materials. [1]
[1] Raymond Louw, A Handbook on the Media and Electoral Law, Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, Johannesburg, 1999.
