The single guiding principle underlying the role of the media in elections is that, without media freedom and pluralism, democracy is not possible. This has been underlined in the decisions of numerous international tribunals. It has also been stated very clearly in the recent past by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, who went on to elaborate a series of steps that governments should take to guarantee freedom of media during elections (see Obligation of Pluralism).
There are a number of different dimensions to media freedom that are of relevance in elections:
- Freedom from censorship.
- Freedom from arbitrary attack or interference.
- Free access to necessary information.
- A pluralism of voices in the media.
The last of these is especially important. It is often interpreted to mean that the media should be owned by a variety of different interests, resulting in a 'market-place of ideas'. This is important, but it is only one aspect. For countries emerging from authoritarian rule, usually characterized by tight state control over the media, ensuring pluralism within the publicly funded media may be equally important. This is because often it is only a government-controlled national broadcaster that has the capacity to reach all sections of the electorate.
In order to ensure that the publicly funded media are not, in practice, government-controlled, a clear regulatory intervention may be required. This is the central paradox of the management of media in elections - the frequent need to establish a fairly complex regulatory system in order to enable the media to operate freely and without interference.
There are, broadly speaking, three areas of media election coverage. Each operates according to different principles and requires a different role of the electoral supervisory body.
Editorial Coverage
This broadly refers to all aspects of news, features, current affairs and opinion coverage that are under the editorial control of the media themselves. Aside from some limited areas - such as the reporting of results, or a restriction on reporting opinion polls shortly before voting - the role of the supervisory body is to do no more than facilitate the free operation of the media.
Direct Access Coverage
There is a bewildering variety of possible systems for regulating political advertising or free direct access coverage. This refers to that portion of election coverage that is under the editorial control of the parties or candidates themselves. There may be obligations on some sections of the media to carry such material - there will almost certainly be conditions that they must abide by if they do.
Candidate debates and panel interviews, which are increasingly common in election broadcast coverage, fall somewhere between these first two categories and may sometimes be subject to a degree of regulation that would not apply to ordinary editorial material.
Voter Education
This subject area does not deal in detail with voter education, which is covered in detail elsewhere (see Voter Education). However, especially in a new democracy, the mass media may be a vital tool not only for keeping voters informed about the issues and candidates, but also for imparting basic information about how to vote and what the vote is for. Voter education, like direct access, will be subject to strict standards that ensure its impartiality.
