In modern campaigns, access to the media is crucial to electoral success. Since this is how most voters can be reached, it is essential to ensure media access for every candidate. Media buys can be expensive, and not every political party has the same financial resources; for this reason, equal access is an important integrity safeguard.
Most countries’ electoral laws or regulations have provisions on media access. Many systems require the media to allow time to all parties and candidates able to pay for advertising. Some may also require the media to allocate airtime fairly among all candidates. Some systems provide public funds or free airtime to achieve a balance in the time available to the different parties. Eligibility requirements for equal time or public funding may be based on how a political party is categorized by electoral administrators when it registers, the percentage of the vote it won in the previous election or the number of seats it holds in the legislature.
Equal Access
Most election laws or regulations require equal access and treatment for those wishing to broadcast election advertisements. In New Zealand, for example, the law “prohibits a broadcaster from offering or giving to any political party terms for broadcasting time that are more favourable than those offered or given to any other party for comparable time.” [1]
Equal access does not necessarily mean equal treatment. In a crowded field of competing candidates and parties, it may be difficult to decide who should appear in the media first or last. Is there enough time for all the candidates’ advertisements to air within the official campaign period, or for the voters to absorb these messages? What time slots are the candidates allotted in the campaign, and when? Even if candidates have equal airtime, do they have equal access to production resources needed to create their advertisements?
Allocation of Public Funds or Free Airtime
Even if all parties have equal access, they do not all have the same resources to pay for advertisements. To even out these differences, most systems allocate public funds for broadcast time or provide free airtime. An equitable formula for allocating resources or airtime may be based on how each political party has been categorized by the electoral management body.
In Canada, the Chief Electoral Officer appoints a Broadcasting Arbitrator, who allocates paid and free airtime to political parties during an election according to a formula set by law. In India, the Election Commission gives all national and regional parties extensive free airtime on government-run media outlets. The Commission makes its allocations equitably by offering each party a fixed minimum number of hours plus additional time linked to the party’s performance in the previous election.
In New Zealand, parties may not use their own funds to buy radio or television time for broadcasting their election programs. Instead, the Broadcasting Act provides for allocation of free airtime during the official campaign period. This includes broadcasting the opening and closing speeches of political party leaders. [2] To qualify, political parties must have registered at least three months before Parliament was dissolved, or have at least five candidates running in the election. The allocation of free time is based on a number of criteria, including how many people voted for the party in the previous election, popular support for the party as shown in opinion polls, party membership figures and the number of MPs who belonged to that party at the time of dissolution. [3]
Enforcement of Access
Some countries that protect equal access to the media through legislation and regulations also have enforcement mechanisms; these are needed to ensure that the intent and letter of the law are applied. Enforcement differs according to the system and the legal requirements. In New Zealand, the law requires every broadcaster to provide the Electoral Commission with a report on all election programs broadcast for parties and candidates during the campaign period. The report must include:
- the name of the candidate or political party for which each election program was broadcast
- the length of each election program and the time when it was broadcast
- the amount paid for broadcasting each election program and the rates by which the amount was fixed [4]
In most systems, the law enables parties or candidates to take legal action against broadcasters who they believe have treated them unfairly. Criminal offences are handled separately through the criminal justice system.
NOTES
[1] Elections New Zealand, Broadcasting at Parliamentary Elections: A Guide of Political Parties, Candidates and Broadcasters, Wellington, 1999, p. 18.
[2] Broadcasting at Parliamentary Elections, p. 15.
[3] Elections New Zealand, Everything You Need to Know about Voting Under MMP, New Zealand's Electoral System, Wellington, 1996, p. 27.
[4] Broadcasting at Parliamentary Elections.
