Many political parties have their own media outlets to communicate with their members, supporters, and the general public. What type of media outlet the party owns determines and is determined by the rules by which it is bound. The variety and scope of media outreach is currently in transition due in large part to the increasing prevalence of technology as a source of media outreach and the use of various technologies by the electorate and party membership.
Political party media fall into one of the three following categories.
- Party Propaganda outlets that are distributed mainly to party members but can also function as an outreach to the general public. Party propaganda does not usually fall under general media regulation and is therefore generally free to write whatever it wants as long as it adheres to prohibitions against hate speech and defamation. In some cases, legislation may regard Party Propaganda outlets as elements of campaign spending, and they may fall under campaign funding regulations.
- Conventional private media that just happen to be owned by a party or one of its leaders or eminent members.
Private media is often regulated both by media laws and by electoral law. Regardless of who owns private media, they will have to conform to the prevailing standards or regulations. Legal frameworks often deal with all or some of the following when dealing with election coverage:
- how time or space will be allocated to candidates and political parties
- whether political advertising is permitted
- what duty the media have to carry voter education material
- whether there is a right of reply to factual misrepresentation in the media
- news blackouts or “reflection periods”
- restrictions on reporting of opinion polls
- policies on hate speech and defamation
- Government media, in a situation in which the ruling party and government have been intertwined. In that case, media using public funds should conform to the same standards as any other public media - which in practice probably means that they cannot campaign for the party at all. It is generally accepted that public media should not be politically partisan in their editorial coverage, as they are a resource for the entire electorate. Many argue that it is an obligation of the state-owned media to give voice to a variety of opinions and not to be a propaganda organ for one particular political party. Also, they have particular obligations to provide civic education, as well as to provide a platform for the different political parties.
Use of a public resource for partisan political campaigning carries all the same legal and ethical implications whether the resource is funds, a vehicle, a building, or a radio station. That is why there are so often clear laws or regulations protecting public media against government interference.
